100 Days with Eto
by ShawnOfFiction
Summary: What if instead of going to the sewers Kaneki stayed on the surface and was rescued and taken away by Eto, the One Eyed Owl?
1. 100 Days with Takatsuki-san

100 Days with Eto-san

Disclaimer: I do not own Toukyou Kushu(Tokyo Ghoul) or Toukyou Kushu: RE

Summary: What if instead of going to the sewers Kaneki stayed on the surface and was rescued and taken away by Eto, the One Eyed Owl?

When Ken Kaneki next awoke, it was on a bed most comfortable. The last he remembered was cutting off the CCG First-Class Amon. Of course he'd lost a piece of his waist, but he wasn't exactly human was he?

Still, what was important was finding out where he was and what happened to Anteiku. He sat up in the bed and from the window beside it watched as the sun rose over a horizon made entirely of sea water. So he was near the sea?

"Mm… Kaneki-kun, go back to sleep."

What was that voice? He looked over on the bed and noticed a fan of very light purple hair draped over a pillow with a female form under the comforter. As uncomfortable as he was, he still needed to leave. He stood up and began to walk towards the door on the opposite side of the room. He lingered on where exactly he was that was near the ocean, but resolved that he would find a way home. To find a way back to Touka-chan.

He didn't take two steps when arms wrapped around his torso lightly and silently, dainty and pale. It reminded him of a dove. Huh. Even when he was rested he still thought of keeping the humans from harming his family.

"I must go, Host-san. Thank you for allowing me to recover." He said before trying to force himself out of the surprisingly strong arms. Who did he know that was this affectionate and strong at once, as well as being female.

"Mo, Kaneki-kun, you can't leave without me. Just get some more sleep, we'll leave the island when I'm ready." She said pulling him back to the bed with ease. He couldn't tell if she was extremely strong or if he simply swayed to her voice easily.

He hadn't known then, but he knew now that it was both.

Falling asleep came easy to him once he was put under the comforter. The darkness was unlike any other. This one seemed to be haunted by peripheral images of purple hair, whereas the ones before he became a ghoul were dark and lonely and the ones afterwards were either full of Hideyoshi finding out what he'd become or of Yamori/Amon/Ayato killing Hinami/Touka.

Still, all that traversed the inner roadways of his mind were avoidant images of the purple hair. It was annoying, but he still found himself attempting to look at it directly for the remainder of his night, and with every glimpse, he calmed.

**DAY 1**

He felt her.

The leg draped over his, the arm wrapped around his chest, the hair that tickled at his ears.

He felt her.

Whatever. He needed to wake her up so that he could go back to Anteiku.

"Host-san, wake up. I must leave." He tried to shake her but she moaned unceremoniously as if she still didn't want to arise. It was midday by the sun's position and she still didn't want him to go home. When he attempted a more firm shake a hand shot out from under the covers and stopped his.

The alarm came when he felt his wrist being dislocated. He tried to reel back a fist to punch her but stopped abruptly when she rose and began rubbing her eyes. Her hand still held his wrist firmly.

It was the author?

"Takatsuki-san?" He asked.

What was she doing here?

"Mm… _*Yawn*_ Egg-kun, you are so restless." She said sleepily before opening her eyes slightly. She concentrated on the wrist she held for a moment before popping it back into place. Kaneki didn't feel it as the shock hadn't worn off.

"Egg-kun, why are you so anxious to leave?" She asked. He noticed how under the covers she wore nothing but lightly wrapped bandages around her chest that ended around her arms. He purple hair was curly and fell into waves down her back and her bangs shielded her eyes from him.

Stretching, she got up and walked past Kaneki with his hand in hers, dragging the comforter across the floor to cover her lower body.

"Now, Egg-kun, you must have a lot of questions. First, we should _*Yawn*_ shower. Then I can explain everything. Or not. Depends on my mood." She said offhandedly.

Did she say 'we'?

"Takatsuki-san, where are we?" Kaneki asked calmly. She huffed in annoyance. Ever since the thing with Aogiri he was impatient.

"Mah, mah, Egg-kun, I said the questions could wait." She chastised. Once they got to the door Kaneki had tried to run to, she opened it to reveal a bathroom and dragged him inside. She let go of his hand and brushed aside her bangs to look at herself clearly in the mirror, revealing her mismatched eyes.

Eyes like his.

He grabbed her face forcefully to look clearly into her eyes in hope that he was wrong. Or right. He wasn't sure which he wanted. And to his dismay/glee, in her left eye was a kakugan. She stared at him expressionlessly before a smile appeared on her face.

Either he never felt or saw a tentacle appear from behind her and lob him into the showering space forcefully. The impact of his body striking the wall made it crack slightly under the immense pressure, and Kaneki couldn't figure out which hurt more: the impact or the sheer force of her kagune slapping him aside.

"Mou, Egg-kun, you don't get to touch me yet, now take off your clothes, you're stinky from fighting." She commanded before she began to peel away at the bandages wrapped around her chest. She dropped the comforter on the floor and began to do away with the bandages covering her hips and thighs. Maybe this would keep him docile.

"Takatsuki-san, you're a-"

"Yes, Egg-kun, I'm a ghoul. Just like you. See?" She said pointing at her one kakugan eye.

"Now, take off your clothes."

"But Takatsuki-san…" he trailed off. He looked away in embarrassment; he couldn't just watch her undress… or unwrap. He acknowledged the fact that he indeed did stink, but she didn't mean for him to shower with her, did she? She rushed forward and grabbed him by his collarbone and lifted him off the ground and pinning him against the wall.

"Now look here, Ken Kaneki, I saved you and Tou-san's life yesterday. Now, the Egg-kun I met at the book signing was polite and respected me very much. You'd better respect my wishes now, and you wanna know why? You're weak. And you were bathing in your food, so you fucking stink and if you don't strip all that dirty human meat smell is gonna get in my shower regardless of the water. Strip!" She said in a hushed irate voice. She only had so much patience, even for someone that was through-and-through like her. Only he could understand her, a half-ghoul who had drifted towards the ghoul's side, not that she cared either way. Other than he and Tou-san, everyone sucked.

'I mustn't falter in my mission!' Kaneki thought resolutely.

"Takatsuki-san, as thankful as I am for you saving me, I must-"

She bit a chunk of meat off his upper arm, chewing it and swallowing before taking a hold of his battle suit with her hands and releasing a pair of tentacles to hold his arms up before ripping the top half of the material off him completely. She continued on with the bottom half and left him completely naked. She threw the torn suit behind her before she looked up at his face. He had an extremely angry look on his face as he struggled against the tentacles that held him off the floor and against the wall, looking into her mismatched eyes with his own unpaired ones.

"Egg-kun, I wish you'd understand. I could eat you right now and there isn't a thing you could do, you know?" She took a long lick at the exposed flesh on his arm before the wound sealed completely, licking her lips before they fell into a pout.

"Mou, now I'M the one who's dirty. Let's just take a shower, Egg-kun, I want to get this blood off me." She said before moving towards the shower handle and turning it on at a decent temperature. She turned back around to face him.

"Are you going to attack me Egg-kun?" She asked nicely, scrubbing at her face with her hands to remove the blood using the pouring water around them. Kaneki's snarl faded after a moment and he sighed, realizing that she was in fact stronger than he is.

"No."

"Good."

She set Kaneki down before both tentacles whipped back into a kakuhou in the base of her spine. She smiled sweetly and grabbed a bucket and two stools. She offered Kaneki one of them before sitting down contentedly on her own.

Kaneki had no idea what to do in this situation, but was determined not to reveal his discomfort. As long as he did as she said he would be able to go back to Anteiku, right?

"Egg-kun, would you like me to wash your back? There's blood all over it." The half-ghoul proposed dreamily.

Kaneki found himself without a choice.

"Yes,(?) please." He responded quietly.

She gave a content sigh as she lathered the rag in the bucket before starting to rub the excessive amount of dry blood off his back. The wound given to him by the investigator Amon was still freshly healed, as the skin was still pink with irritation. She made sure to only rub at the foreign blood above the red patch of skin where his Kakuhou was situated, neither hers or his, that was stuck on him the moment he passed out.

"See, Egg-kun? It's so much easier when you're docile." She said dreamily. She abruptly stopped scrubbing at him and lowered the rag into the bucket to rinse it. She squeezed and wrung as she thought of the many things she could do to her Egg-kun. A showing of power could do the trick, right? She giggled at the thought of his face once he saw what exactly she could do at her strongest.

"Egg-kun, before I explain everything, you need to wash my back." She commands.

Kaneki almost stammers but stops himself before speaking out against her.

"Takatsuki-san…"

"Call me Sen-chan, Egg-kun." She corrects him before handing him the thoroughly rinsed rag.

"Sen-chan, that is rather intimate…" He asked her.

He knew it was impossible to beat her, and considering her kakuhou was in her back to his knowledge, he couldn't attack from behind either. Maybe it was just a good idea to do what she said.

For now at least.

He picked up the rag and squeezed it free of excess water before lathering her back just as she did his. His face held a concentrated look until he heard her sigh in happiness, effectively breaking his concentration and making him hesitate in his movement. Something not unnoticed by Takatsuki Sen.

"So, Egg-kun, what do you want to ask me?"

"What happened after the fight between Amon and I?" He asked solemnly. He had since stopped scrubbing, much to his bathing partner's displeasure.

"Egg-kun, please clean my sides as well, then I'll turn around." She told him. Kaneki was about to ask again, but hesitated in his resolve. Did she say turn around?

"After you and Tou-san were beaten up by the CCG, I noticed we were outnumbered. So, I swallowed you both and swam here." She explained, bending to the left to reveal her right side more to be cleaned. When he paid extra attention to that area she sighed in satisfaction.

"Where is here? And who is your Tou-san?" Kaneki inquired. Regardless of how uncomfortable her body made him feel, he needed answers. Why did she save him? Who was her Tou-san? When did she become a ghoul? Along with countless questions about her writing. He'd start with the important ones first.

"'Here' is an island I found while sailing after the release of _Dear Kafka_. The island used to be a lot bigger, but it started to be taken over by the sea, and now a lot of the first floor is full of water. I had Tou-san fashion it into a way into and out of the house. As to who is my Tou-san…" She trailed off. She turned around on her stool abruptly before leaning forward with wide eyes and a happily crazed look on her face.

"How about I show you after you clean up better?" She said before snatching the rag.

The rest of the bath time had gone as Kaneki expected, apart from the grumbling about repairing bathroom walls and the fact that she was very liberal with her body around him, he was beginning to see that this person who was supposed to be his favorite author wasn't going to hurt him. Too badly at least.

After he had gotten dressed in clothes given to him by a Sen having trouble with her wrapping, she began to lead him through the house. In her frustration she had foregone most of her wrapping, finding it only necessary to cover her more private bits and abandon clothing. Besides it was only Egg-kun and herself on the island, along with her father.

They walked from the room they slept in to the opposite side of the house. When he looked downstairs, he noticed that she had been telling the truth. There was water almost to the second floor, but instead of what a normal flooded house would look like, it seemed that the face of the house was made into a heavy metal door. The water inside the house wasn't sea water either, it was clear as if it had been a pool.

They reached their destination, entering a room that had an eerie blue-green glow stretching out into the hallway. Once inside, they approached what seem to be a large man-sized tube, with someone inside it, thought it was blurred out by the thick glass. Takatsuki went over to the adjoined console in the otherwise empty room and hit a few buttons on the keyboard.

A portion of the glass lowered, revealing Yoshimura, the manager of Anteiku. It couldn't be…

"Here's Tou-san! I'm sure you're well acquainted, now let's go!" She said, grabbing his arm before climbing the stairs opposite the entrance of the room. Kaneki tried to get the best look of his manager, the one who had taught him almost half the things he knew about being a ghoul. The rest he learned either himself or Touka-san.

Wait, Touka-san.

As soon as she brought them up to the third floor he turned to her and ripped himself from her grasp.

"What happened to Touka-san!? And Yomo-san!? What happened to all the people in Anteiku!?" He yelled.

Takatsuki's cheerful face fell into a gloomy one. Great, more outside influences for him to worry and for her not to care about.

"They're all fine, they got away after I dealt with the CCG. Why do you care anyways?" She huffed impatiently. Her bangs fell down when she did, masking her eyes but never taking away from her show of irritation.

"They're my family, and if Yoshimura-san is really your father, yours too!"

The girl's irritated look turned to one of anger.

"They're no family of mine, and even if they are, fuck them. I only care about what happens to Egg-kun and Tou-san."

"Why do you care what happens to me if you don't care what happens to the people of Anteiku?" Kaneki asked calmly. He just didn't get her. He didn't want to have fun and talk with his idolized writer. The time for his childishness has long passed and it was now time for him to return home. Why couldn't she understand that?

Eto had taken to thinking of ways to explain to the young egg what her intentions were. She saw so much in him that the world lacked. He was the ray of hope in an otherwise meek and miserable world as far as she knew. He was powerful in his own right, but amateurish.

"Egg-kun… Hm. I want you to read something while I go get us some food ready." She said walking into the large open room that consisted of the whole third floor of the house. When one actually walked in they'd notice that it was a library whose shelves were hidden in the walls. There was a single table in the center and many a futon or chair spread around the room, giving it a homey feeling.

Kaneki was not amused.

"Takatsuki-san!" He yelled, but was woefully ignored by the direct minded girl. As aloof as she may be at times, when she was focused there was no stopping her. She grabbed a stack of books from a shelf on the far wall and brought it back to the table in the center. Kaneki watched her intently as she walked back towards him.

"Read them." She commanded.

"And what if I don't?"

"Well I could hold you down and read them to you later tonight when we go to bed. Your choice, Egg-kun." She said wistfully.

She walked out, leaving Kaneki to ponder many things like what books did she have, where was the food that she was bringing…

Escape routes…

He could swim after all, what was stopping him from just leaving the house altogether if it's all water? He began his search for a window in the room. After checking all four corners he came to the conclusion that he had to leave the room should he want to escape through the water. When he did exit, he began to walk down to the second floor and through the halls, listening intently for any signs of his captor. Once he got to the stairs leading to the very flooded first floor he began to walk down slowly as to not raise her suspicion with sounds of splashing.

The water felt just as it looked: a pool. He swam down and traversed the random areas. All were barren, leaving no evidence as to what kind of room it was and whether or not it would lead to the front door. When he reached what seemed to be a long hallway with a door at the end, the hope in his chest bloomed, as he swam toward it as fast as he can.

His last waking memory was one of panic at the realization that he had left Yoshimura with the crazy author, followed by complete darkness.

Takatsuki Sen looked at her now dry prisoner in annoyance. Maybe she should just explain everything to him in order to keep him here?

Nah, that would ruin the fun. After all, what kind of climax would it be if he knew everything from the start? No, she would reveal things little by little, ease him into his destiny, until he could be dropped down in the CCG headquarters and annihilate it completely alongside her.

She plopped down gracelessly on his chest, forcing the water in his lungs out before he could drown completely. With a sputter and cough, Kaneki slowly gained consciousness. However annoying he was, she couldn't help but find his confused face rather cute.

"Now, Egg-kun, why were you trying to leave me?" She asked in an innocent tone. Kaneki still seemed disheveled from his lapse of consciousness.

"When d-did you catch me?" he asked between coughs.

The girl smiled at him sweetly before stroking a thumb across his cheek.

"I was behind you the whole time, silly."

Kaneki felt a led drop in his stomach. The whole time he thought he was being sneaky and getting out of the damn house she was behind him the whole time? How did he not hear her come into the water with him? She must've made a sound when she dived in behind him right?

"Here's the thing, Egg-kun." She said as she got off his chest and began to pace around him. He learned that he was back in the library on one of the many futons.

"You know Takatsuki Sen, so you underestimate her. Even after I got my first taste, you still think it's a good idea to defy me. If you took the time to actually listen to me and not obsess about going back to those losers at Anteiku-"

"They're not losers!" Kaneki shouted hoarsely followed by a coughing fit.

"I told you everyone survived, but do you know what happened to Anteiku?"

Kaneki stared at her silently, now sitting up and stroking the discomfort out of his neck. Takatsuki had stopped pacing and had gone to giving him a steely stare into his eyes with her own.

"Anteiku was raided and destroyed. There is nothing left. All the coffee, all of the rooms, the stocked food, even little Hinami's books were annihilated by the CCG. You know why? Because they're losers, including Tou-san."

"Shut up!" Kaneki yelled at her. He stood up and reared a fist back to punch her.

"Oh, so you're going to hit me because I'm telling you the way things are?"

Kaneki's fury was barely contained, but he knew from what he had experienced so far that she was far more powerful than he was. The helplessness saddened him more than anything as he realized that there was no escape from the house in the middle of the ocean.

There was no escape from her.

No, he couldn't think like that. He would study her for as long as he was here and when the time was right, he would leave. For now, he would just do as she says.

"Do you still want me to read?"

"That's more like it Egg-kun!" She exclaimed happily.

And so they read the things Takatsuki had laid out for him.

The first was a book of history on ghouls, written by a man who was always suspected to be a ghoul by the AGE, the American iteration of the CCG, but had evaded pursuit after releasing his work until the day he died. It told many stories, some legend and others factual. The supposed origin of the ghouls was lodged in myth and mystery:

**The people of old were faithful to God, Kami and other monotheistic religion existed at the time. It is said that when the people were tired and dwindling in number due to their own petty wars over land and food among other resources, God's hand was forced, and he created an enemy all of mankind can learn from. He invited the human who had killed the most of his own kind in all of the wars to heaven and reshaped him and gave him a mission: to teach mankind to unite and not fight amongst each other. When he returned, he returned with many people who were born in heaven and shaped like he was. Human, but not human.**

**This was the ghoul, a beast with a bloody red stare and a taste for human flesh, but were not limited to eating only that. The original ghouls had only one variation of Kagune, what would now be considered an Ukaku-type in the form of wings the color of night. They were said to be savages amongst normal humans, but portrayed human behavior amongst themselves. At first, the humans didn't know of these tendencies, but simply looked upon them as beasts to be slain for their own survival. After years of fighting against the ever multiplying foe, the ghouls had simply left them alone under the order of the original ghoul to live without fighting, either to live among the humans or live amongst themselves in small communities spread about the world. Their enhanced bodies allowed them to inhabit places humans could not, so most took to the far north and south in refuge, living their lives and having children as humans would.**

**After seeing what his interference had done, God had attempted to return the ghouls to heaven to return them to their human form. Some accepted his grace, but most, including the original, wanted to stay as they were. In anger at the tool's defiance, God condemned the original ghoul named Lucifer to the fiery depths of the earth. All ghouls after him were created in his image: human, but not human. Lucifer had long abandoned the humanity he held in favor of God's mission for him, allowing him to be manipulated and removing his free will. It is said that God had severed all ties with Lucifer after his banishment, and now Lucifer lied in anguish burning for all eternity for his defiance. Immortal but without purpose, as his chief had all but abandoned him.**

**Now, some still believe in this God, a vindictive being who had tried to fix what in reality probably was not broken. Perhaps the scientific approach of a series of humans who had ghoul tendencies reproducing repeatedly in what is now Tokyo had created the species unknowingly among themselves. Or maybe the stories were simply altered, and God is the omniscient being many claim he is and had no hand in creating any of the ghouls. I believe that as soon as Lucifer was gone, God turned his back on our world.**

**After all, what God would let such terrible tragedies like the holocaust or slavery amongst humans go on for such long periods of time? What was there to learn from such suffering? How can the will to live overpower an omniscient being?**

"Egg-kun, you're reading the boring bits, go to page 52, there's some good history for ya." Takatsuki told him. He had never heard of these stories, never in school nor in libraries. Where did she get this?

"This is interesting enough, Takatsuki-san."

"Mou, don't tell me you're going to be like Tou-san and believe in all that religious crap." She huffed, putting down her own book.

"Yoshimura-san is religious?" He inquired. Made sense, he was an older gentlemen.

"Yeah, that's how I got all these books about history and stuff. Seriously, check out page 52." She recommended.

He turned to said page. It was far less interesting than the one about ghoul origins, but it was something to read nonetheless. It consisted of a small summary of some wars between humans and ghouls and ghouls themselves. The first of them was labeled the war of the west, a war that had taken place between ghouls from the North and the South. After centuries of breeding with only other ghouls most had become unable to eat anything other than human flesh, the North territories had taken to using what is now North America to hunt for food en masse before returning to the far North to eat and live until the next hunt. These hunts would occur every year during the harsh winters.

The far South was far more populated than the North, however, and they had wanted to use some of North America and all of South America as hunting grounds. The Northerners saw this as greedy and proceeded to defend their hunting territory until it exploded into an all-out war between the two nations.

As numbers dwindled on both sides, they had begun to tell human village chiefs to hunt the enemies in the North/South in exchange for their village to be left alone when they would hunt. The humans had chosen a different course, however. They had amassed an army from many different places in the Americas to lie in wait until both sides of the ghoul war were tired and unable to continue, before attacking them and ridding the world of the monsters. It had worked to an extent, and the remaining ghouls had taught themselves to eat in moderation and live amongst the humans as well as forming a truce.

Huh, so that was how ghouls had integrated into human society…

"Egg-kun, it's been a long day and I want to go to bed, come on." Takatsuki complained, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Go on without me, I want to read more." Kaneki told her offhandedly. Perhaps while she was asleep he could explore the entirety of the house. He didn't want to leave, so she couldn't stop him right?

The idea faded away into the pile of useless ideas when from behind Takatsuki shot four long tentacles that wrapped themselves around Kaneki's limbs before carrying him up and out of the room while he sent shouts of protests.

"Takatsuki-san, why must I sleep when you retire?" He shouted as she yawned and walked back to the room he had woken up in earlier that day. She collected a new comforter from the closet before tossing Kaneki back on the bed and retracting her Kagune and began unbinding the wraps around her hips.

"T-T-Takatsuki-san why are you undressing?" Kaneki stuttered out.

"The bindings keep me from breathing correctly."

"Then why not wear normal clothes?!"

"When I breath fully without restraint I tend to want to run around and do things." She said before starting on the wrappings around her chest

"So what, there's nothing wrong with running." Kaneki countered.

"Well, Egg-kun, if you want to do things that would require for me to be able to breath, I'm all for it. I never thought you'd be so forward though…" She said sweetly before laying down next to him. Kaneki was blushing a beet red at her implication.

"Fine, use bindings for all I care." He said offhandedly before laying on his back. He could think about ways to escape tomorrow when she got their food once more. The thought of food reminded him that he hadn't eaten today, not even drank a coffee. It made his stomach rumble in discomfort as he groaned. He would have to ask her where she stored her food tomorrow morning.

"Ken, are you hungry?" She whispered to him, facing him with calm eyes, no longer mismatched but both a pure azure color.

"…Yes."

"I had a taste of you, how about a little taste of me?" She proposed before rolling down the comforter to reveal her open collar. Kaneki's eyes widened. Was this bait, a way to get his neck close to hers? He knew she was far faster than he was, perhaps she wanted to eat him without struggle? It occurred to him that she could've killed him in his sleep hours ago when she caught him trying to escape and had decided to give in to his hunger.

He pounced and planted himself above her form, her hazy eyes staring back up at his now mismatched ones. In a flash he latched on to her collar before ripping out a chunk of meat and chewing before swallowing, ignoring her mewls and moans of pain and pleasure. He attempted to go for it again once the wound closed and the meat regenerated, but was stopped by a strong but gentle hand. He tried to force himself past it and go for her neck with more vigor, but was turned over and pinned down to the bed with her straddling him and holding his arms down.

After a moment he had stopped struggling and had begun to return to normal, but before he could she bit down on the exact same spot where he had bitten her and ripped a chunk of meat more cleanly than he had before chewing and giving an audible swallow followed by a satisfied hum. Kaneki eyes were flashing between their normal gray color and the black and red Kakugan before he settled down. His eyes widened at the feelings he now had. When Touka had eaten some of him to defeat Tsukiyama, he had felt hurt and humiliated. This was different.

"Mmm. Good night, Egg-kun."

A single trail of thought went through both of their minds before the darkness overcame them.

'It has never felt so good to be eaten.'

**Day 1 END**

**Well guys, I spent a week writing this. This is my first serious fic, and I hope to not run out of ideas before I could finish it. Who knows, I think I'm just lucky enough to not get any terrible ideas for once and be able to type it out. I'm sure everyone else thinks they're terrible too, but screw it, I feel like sharing.**

**Shawn=Out**


	2. 99 Days with Eto-san

99 Days with Eto-San

This darkness had been clear, unlike the one upon the first day of his arrival. He took the time to observe his dream world. If he was to look forward, there was darkness, infinite and comforting to his intentions, but the edge of his vision was forever plagued by flays of delicate purple, but he was beginning to grow accustomed to it. After all, it was his mind, what exactly could hurt him?

When he felt the slight movement in his waking body, the vision or lack thereof had begun to visually fade, before he reaffirmed it. This place was comforting, and as far as he could tell he'd no reason to arise. When all else was gone from his mind, this is what it looked like.

From the infinite darkness appeared a face, much like his own, but distinctively different. The hair was black to his white, features turned up in happiness. The eyes were gray yet ironically full of light and content, a stark contrast to his mismatched dead ones. It dawned on him who this was.

This was who he used to be. Ken Kaneki. What did he want?

The face was soon transformed to match the present one. Then the mask appeared.

Long and pointed downward, it covered his entire face, leaving only one white hole for his lone Kagune eye. This was the face that comforted him. The person he knew he needed to be. But why was he here? The other him walked up to the original and motioned for him to sit down. As they observed each other quietly it was evident that this figment of his imagination wanted to tell him something. But what was it? The copy grabbed its mask forcefully from the bottom half, blood cutting into his palms from the edges and began to rip it apart. He screamed in pain and anger as he writhed, trying to remove the mask from his face.

"Stop, it's there to help!" the original explained. Its plight was futile when the copy removed the mask successfully, steam coming from the ripped mask covering its face. It slumped forward and fell down on all fours, mask still in its hand as it whimpered.

The original made an attempt to help it up when the copy rose suddenly and threw the mask aside, revealing a tear eyed face. The eyes were unmatched but the hair was no longer white. It was a deep black, blending with the darkness that surrounded them. The features were pained, but the eyes told a more confusing tale.

They weren't dead. Sad as they were, they were alive and willing to push on to wherever the copy wanted to go. Where did it want to go?

The darkness was brightened by a sharp ray of light coming from the upper left of his perception, and the copy had disappeared and the only thing that lay in its place was the mask. His vision began to fade intensely, abandoning any focus on anything inside this world, before he was ripped away into his tired, awakened body.

The other side of the bed was empty. Was she not here?

There was a note on his chest. It was short, written in obviously feminine handwriting.

**Egg-kun, I've gone to get food since you wouldn't let me yesterday. You must be hungry, so don't try to leave, or else I'll bring you back and eat all the food myself in front of you. I'll be back real soon.**

**3 - Sen**

**PS: The house is open to you.**

Hm. The waves outside the window were calm, just as they were yesterday. He grunted and swung his legs off the bed and sat hunched over the edge, contemplating what he would do while she was away.

**Day 2**

After taking a shower, he had begun walking around through the second floor hall, his mind wandering in tune with his feet.

Where exactly was this house located? _Step. _The house was bountiful in space if the library took the entirety of one floor, what could all of the rooms on the second floor contain? _Step. _There were stairs leading up when he went to library, what kind of things did those lead to? _Step._ It would be a good idea to allot time to read more on the ghoul history. The mythology seemed interesting.

He stopped himself before he bumped into a door at the far end of the second floor hallway, the one with the eerie greenish glow under it.

Yoshimura-san.

He walked in and took the time to observe everything clearly now that Takatsuki wasn't there. The tube that held Yoshimura was as he had found it yesterday, blurry but now he knew who was inside. He looked next to it at the console, wanting to see if he could find a way to release him. The monitor was a myriad of complex words and statistics. He was 185 cm tall. His age was narrowed down to somewhere between 55 and 60. He weighed 86 kg. His kagune was a Ukaku type. There was an animation of his kakuja transformation. He lived under the name Kuzen until he left the V association.

Kaneki began to look for a button that would release him. It couldn't be that complicated, you would think that this kind of thing would have an emergency release mechanism, he thought. He continued to search over the console before his eyes fell on a keyboard. Computer programs usually did something when the escape key was pressed.

And pressed it he did.

The monitor gave a prompt.

**Activate ER Procedure?**

ER Procedure? Emergency room? That wouldn't make sense, why would that be allocated to the escape key. He rubbed his chin in thought for things that it could mean. Escape Room? No, that wouldn't make sense either.

Emergency release? Maybe that's how he got him out of there! He was about to press enter on the keyboard but hesitated. There had to be a reason he was being held in there, perhaps he was still recovering.

A quick glance at the statistics negated that as a purpose for his captivity. Maybe it was to keep him from attacking Takatsuki-san. But why would he attack his own daughter?

Who's to say she's telling the truth? She could be some stranger to him.

He threw all caution into the wind and pressed enter, determined to see that the person who saved him be saved. The blurry portion of the glass was brought down revealing a clear image of the man inside, before steam started to burst from the seams of the tube. The green liquid began to drain through the bottom of the chamber as Yoshimura fell down to sit on his haunches. As soon as the liquid was completely drained the final piece of glass was taken away, exposing the old man to the world.

His eyes opened to their Kakugan forms, unfocused and tired. He twitched for a moment, Kaneki noticed, before he began openly sniffing, closing his eyes as if to supply more concentration in his nasal searching. He slowly got out of the small platform and placed a wet foot on the floor followed by another. When he was within five feet of Kaneki he suddenly stopped in his tracks, completely still and bewildering the young man in front of him.

"Yoshimura-san?"

"AAAAAAAAH" the old ghoul yelled as he pounced upon Kaneki and pinned him to the ground, his eyes vicious yet still unfocused. Kaneki attempted to shield himself from the heavy unyielding blows from the man's forearms and hammer fists, before he was picked up off the ground and tossed out into the hallway. The wall he struck collapsed under the pure speed of which he was thrown; putting him in what he thought was a guest room. He looked through the hole in the wall and saw that Yoshimura was standing unnervingly still in the door frame. He looked at Kaneki in the eyes with a steely gaze before he spoke in a grave tone, unlike any he had heard the elderly ghoul speak in before.

"Leave now."

He choked out the last word before slamming the door in a brute show of force. One thing was very evident in Kaneki's eyes.

The man was not himself.

Kaneki considered what exactly could be making the man so hostile. Perhaps he was angry at being awoken, or how the events of the Anteiku raid had transpired. Then it occurred to him that however well-mannered the old ghoul was, he was still a ghoul. And when Kaneki himself acted with savage aggression it was usually for one of two reasons: he had something to protect or he was hungry.

He peered through the hole made in the wall with curiosity. He'd seen the man act with solemn aggression when he himself was being "rescued" from the clutches of Aogiri tree. He behaved when defending Anteiku as he did then. But this was a new development. He'd never seen what the wise Yoshimura-san looked like when he was starved.

Kaneki knew himself to still be half human in his biology, regardless of what kind of ideals he had long ago adapted, and had thus inferred that the reason why Yoshimura was so adamant to have him be left alone was because he smelled of food.

"I'm hoooooome~!" came a shout from the hallway, followed by what sounded like a sack being dropped unceremoniously on the wood floors. He froze with fear. What would Takatsuki do to him when she found out that he'd woken up Yoshimura without her consent? He quickly shook away the feeling and stood to face the music, as he'd once heard Enji-san tell him.

Takatsuki herself simply walked down the hallway, smelling Kaneki in one of the guest rooms. She had a blank look on her face as the water from the entrance to the house tracked in her every step, her hair dripping onto the clothes that she had become unaccustomed to wearing around the house. She found the hole in the hallway and peered in with a blank expression, wondering what exactly had happened.

"Egg-kun, why is there a hole in the wall?" She asked him. He was about to reply before a devious smile appeared on her face and she spoke before him.

"You woke up my Tou-san didn't you? Did he try to eat you? He hasn't eaten in days, he must be really hungry." She said as she walked back to where she left the bag. Kaneki climbed back through the hole in the wall, an uncomfortable expression on his face. She'd almost been eager to see her father in such a state.

It's not like she can get angry, he surmised. She _did _say that the house as open to him.

She walked back with what smelled like tightly packed human meat and opened the door to reveal a Yoshimura with his head in his hands sitting on the chair in front of the console that controlled the mechanism that held him earlier in the day. He looked up to see his daughter's sweet smile while she bore a package of meat before him, a gesture that tore his heart apart in its supposed kindness.

"Eto…" he addressed.

Kaneki was confused. Who was Eto? A nickname?

"Well, Tou-san, eat." She told him happily. He looked up at her in awe, as he had never expected such kindness from his daughter. Not after what he had done. Both to her and her mother. Still, he opened the package slowly and took to eating it quickly, as it was slightly dried and not excessive in blood. After he was done, he stood and gave Kaneki an apologetic look, hoping he would understand why he'd acted the way he did earlier. Kaneki smiled in understanding before taking a step forward to greet his old manager.

"Good, you've eaten, now get out."

Kaneki almost convinced himself that he hadn't heard right. Did she just tell her father to leave? Why?

"Eto, I don't unders-"

"Did you think I wouldn't know what you did? You may have saved my life, but now I saved your life, so leave." She cut him off icily. The initial happiness in his face was crushed into a fine powder of pure sorrow. Of course she'd known and had not forgiven him, he thought. He was beyond forgiveness, despite all of the extended efforts he made to repent for the sins he had committed in his youth.

"I... I'm sorry. I'll leave." He told her quietly, before walking past her and stopping to look Kaneki in the eye. The younger half-ghoul trembled when the old man put hands on his shoulders. It almost seemed like the man was looking at him instead of down to him as he was accustomed to.

"I still remember the confused and hungry young college student that Touka brought into Anteiku who had been turned into a ghoul. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. It seems that over the years I've become accustomed to failing those I care about." He explained. He let go of his shoulders took Kaneki's small hand in his own calloused palms before speaking to him animatedly.

"Take care of each other, Kaneki-kun. We shall see each other in the future." He told him before walking out of the room.

"Yoshimura-san, where will you go?" Kaneki asked before the man could leave.

"Taiwan, for a while. It's imperative that I remain out of Tokyo, as the CCG probably know my face now." He said before walking past him and slowly but surely easing himself into the water so he could leave. Why was Takatsuki being so cold? And who is Eto?

Kaneki had no choice but to watch him disappear under the water when Takatsuki walked in front of him. Her face was as blank as it was when she had entered the residence. He stared, contemplating what exactly was her opinion on her father's unplanned release. She walked forward, picking up the sack that was full of what he assumed to be human meat. It certainly smelled like it.

He decided to confront her as to why she made her own father leave so shamefully.

"Takatsuki-san, why did you make him leave?" he asked her.

"That's none of your business, besides, I don't need him anymore." She said offhandedly.

Then he snapped.

"How can you be so ungrateful!? You're lucky to have a father who so obviously loves you!" He yelled. She stared back with that same blank look, confused by his anger before she remembered what she had learned from his medical records.

"Fathers are worthless anyways, yours was probably as bad as mine." She told him, seeking to anger him further.

At first the white hot anger at what she said was enough for him to lash out in blind fury. But then he curbed the anger in what he felt was a moment of wisdom. She's dominated him before, and he was feeling rather hungry.

Still, he'd make it a point to express his disagreement.

"Your father has been nothing but kind to me, how can he be bad? And you know nothing of my own father." He explained. His tone was meant to be purely logical, but had betrayed some of the annoyance at her absolutes.

"I know that you only feel so strongly about him because you liked the books he read." She said nonchalantly, sitting upon the bag she had brought with her return. She seemed to be unmovable on the subject, so he digressed and simply thought about how to ask her for food. Ever since the incident with Yamori he had taken to only eating ghouls in order to strengthen himself. He thought that he'd abandoned the human within him.

Why did he feel so apprehensive about eating human meat?

His apprehension was quickly beaten out by his hunger, as it had been a while since he had last eaten.

"Takatsuki-san…" he trailed off, still unsure how to ask. He'd never asked Yoshimura before. He bit back a chuckle once he realized that he had been force fed human meat all of the times he had eaten it. She still held the same expression on her face, before the smile that he now thought was her only other facial expression appeared on her face: wry and assuming.

"You're hungry right?" She asked him tantalizingly. He assumed that she would just pull out one of the packages and hand it to him, but she simply hauled the bag that was as large as she was over her shoulder. She walked away from him towards the stairs and he followed her assuming she was going to sit him down somewhere so they could both eat.

She walked past the library and onto the 4th floor, the only one he hadn't been on yet. Upon arrival he noticed two things. The first was that the room was the size of the library, taking up the entire floor, and that even after entry, this room was completely barren. No windows, no chairs, nothing. Just empty.

"Takatsuki-san, what is this place." He asked her. She walked inside and dropped the big sack in the center of the room before sitting upon it gracefully, her eyes still taunting him with his hunger.

"If you want food, you have to fight for it." She explained.

He gulped down the hunger that would surely lead in the irrational need to feast, as he thought about what exactly did she expect. She's shown that she is stronger than him, what's the point of making him fight when he's already completely docile?

"Takatsuki-san, I understand that you can constrain me, and I do not want to fight you." He tried to tell her. Her smile fell.

He was trying to make excuses. He hasn't accepted shit about his ghoul side.

"I don't care. Are you hungry? Fight for your food." She implored.

Kaneki huffed. She seemed far too eager for violence. What happened to the book-lover he had spent time with just yesterday. He felt what was left of his pride go into his next sentence.

"Sen-chan, please, I don't want to fight. I've done enough fighting." He begged.

"Obviously not, you're a loser. If you're a loser it means you've given up and stopped fighting. Winners can stop fighting because they've never let a loss be a reason to stop fighting." She explained cryptically. What was that supposed to even mean?

"No, all that fighting has ever done is take things away." He argued.

"That stupid little school bitch, what's her name… Touka or something? What about when she was getting eaten by her own brother. You fought then, what's stopping you from fighting now?" She challenged.

"Do not speak about Touka-chan that way." He ground out angrily.

"Well I guess it makes sense that you're so apprehensive to fight me. She did coddle you when you were weaker than you are now. The weak congregate more often than the strong do anyways, and the dumb little slut enabled your cowardice."

His kagune exploded out of his shirt in the form of 8 tentacles, giving him a disgusting arachnid shape when it lifted him off the floor. His human eye was squinted in anger while the kakugan held wide open, observing its target's every movement or lack thereof.

"Shut up!" He punctuated as he shot himself towards her.

'Look at her, sitting there like there's nothing wrong. I'll tear her head off.'

As he sailed through the air, he began to spin. He went through three rotations before a huge tentacle whipped out and struck at the smiling half ghoul half girl's face.

When the tentacle was about to strike true, her kagune appeared from over her shoulder in a crack, blocking the thick limb that protruded from Kaneki in his anger.

"You've got to do better than that, Egg-kun." She urged. He snarled and took to using his feet to move while the eight tentacles became 8 thing and lank arms, shooting at ridiculous speeds the ever dodging and blocking Takatsuki-san who never stopped giggling in spite of the danger his 10 limbs possessed. Kaneki tried all manner of attacks, even tried attacking her from behind, but her hands and the two tentacles that formed one of her kagune blocked every attack. Growing impatient he jumped back.

Kaneki reeled both arms back, enveloping them in the twitching and crazed limbs protruding from his back. They twisted and condensed, before extending outwards forming two sword like extensions on his arms, about 10 feet long. He lunged at her and swung like a madman.

"Oh!" Takatsuki exclaimed in surprise before she ducked under the wide arc of one of his blades. He brought down another bladed arm upon her crouched form that she blocked with both of her own pulsing red extensions.

He yelled in anger as he brought down the second blade on her defense before he began hammering away, punctuating each attack with a yell.

In a flurry of red and delicate peach colored skin, Kaneki was thrown off balance by a blow to the legs. As soon as he lost his footing, Takatsuki grabbed his ankle than turned around to slam him heavily into the ground face first.

She hopped upon his back before he could recover and pinned him and his kagune to the ground. He struggled and shook under her unidentifiable strength. Where did she get the strength in such tiny limbs? She seemed so dainty.

"Mmm." She hummed.

"I guess I should at least get a snack since you obviously aren't doing anything with it…"

She pulled her hair back behind her ear and began to lower her face down onto Kaneki's kakuho. She licked her lips in anticipation, but was stopped by the quiet and instantaneous shiver of Kaneki's body.

His kagune shriveled back into the kakuho before it burst out in the form of a thick and sharp spike aiming to impale its potential consumer. She jumped away and watched in fascination as Kaneki brought himself to all fours, still quaking and shivering as his RC cell-powered limbs moved in spasms. They began to reshape around his spine and his face. They solidified to a darker crimson, signifying their hardening as it extended beyond his tail bone forming a long tail with spikes on it, as he was when he was rescued during the Anteiku raid. His face had gone through a significant change, his kakugan eye uncovered while the newly formed mask extended out into a point not unlike an angler fish. His human eye was wide and pure white, completing the mutated and malformed look he had adapted with his undoing.

"Oh, a kakuja." Takatsuki commented quietly. She smiled, never one to err in the face of danger. She watched him carefully, as he only moved in small measures and ticks, as if holding a ridiculous amount of potential energy in his body. She knew that when he did move, it would be explosive.

And explosive it was.

Kaneki shot to one side of the room and landed on all fours against the far wall. In a split second upon his landing he slapped his tail against the wall and propelled himself toward his sickly sweet adversary. He began a roll in mid-air aiming to slap his tail down on where she stood.

She dodged to the side, but his pursuit was relentless. Under his mask she could see his teeth bared in tension, a look that satisfied her.

"Egg-kun, you're having so much fun!" She shouted, dodging a lunging punch he had thrown at her. While dodging, some of her kagune fused together behind her, hardening into what looked like a cloak, Kaneki observed. What was she doing?

He jumped in the air to kick her in the chest, but was grabbed by the ankle once more and tossed to the other side of the room. He broke through the wall upon impact but held fast to the edge, keeping himself from falling to the ocean water below. He used his tail to center himself on the wall and began to climb back up to continue the fight.

When he recovered and stood back on the floor, Takatsuki was no longer there.

In her place stood what could only be described as a beast of red and black, standing four feet taller than where Takatsuki herself had stood. Dark tendrils made of the same material as the beast twitched and flicked above and behind the hulking form while the long and lanky clawed hands with only three fingers almost reached the floor. It appeared to also have four arms, all protruding at awkward, unnatural angles, adding to the monster effect. The face of the vile thing was long and narrow. It had a single eye in the center of its face with two marks on the side of it not unlike the gills on a fish. Its mouth was held open, letting its long chin down to its chest while it displayed an array of disturbingly human teeth.

Kaneki stood still, unwavering in the face of what could only be certain death. A flash in the form of a memory came to his mind.

_Kaneki sat with his closest friend Hideyoshi watching the news in a café they had found on their way home from school._

'_The CCG have come upon a ghoul that they may not be able to beat, it seems. The monster disguised as a human is now being called the One-Eyed Owl, a ghoul unlike any other. Illustrations provided by the only surviving member of a task force sent to eliminate the Owl show that the beast looks like this.'_

_Hideyoshi only stared at the picture, showing neither shock nor fear. As if he was memorizing the picture to its last detail._

'_Here we have the CCG's Special Class Ghoul Investigator, Arima Kishou, or more commonly known as the Reaper of the CCG.' The reporter said as she turned to the white haired investigator._

'_Arima-san, do you have any plans on defeating the terror that is plaguing the 2__nd__ and 23__rd__ ward?' Asked the reporter._

_The investigator's expression never faltered, as one would in the face of such a responsibility, showing that he was the best at what he does._

'_I've no doubt that many people are scared for their lives if they live their lives near the 2__nd__ or 23__rd__ ward. Please understand that this is a special case. It has been reported that recently, the One-Eyed Owl has taken to not killing humans. This does not mean that I will not personally see to it that the beast is eliminated. It is only a matter of finding the wolf in sheep's clothing. Fear not, citizens of Tokyo, for I will slay the thing before it can hurt anyone else.'_

_His voice was resolute and unwavering, but the only thing that remained persistent in the memory was the picture of the One-Eyed Owl._

"You're the One-Eyed Owl." Kaneki declared.

"Yessssss, now let's have some more fun!" It hissed, before one of its many limbs lunged far and wide to strike Kaneki. He rolled out of the way before he was forced to dodge another limb that struck down and left a hole in the floor. Upon seeing the limb retract, Kaneki broke into a run towards the beast. All the while, a second centipede tail formed behind him, and his arms were enveloped and made into small blades.

He jumped at the beast's chest and brought down one blade in an attempt to stab it in its shoulder.

The attack landed, impaling the Owl and leaving Kaneki's arm elbow deep inside of it. To his shock, the beast began to form a raspy laugh. He sneered and stabbed another arm into the thing's neck. It began to laugh more voraciously before its arms grabbed Kaneki by his leg and brought him high up in the air. His head banged against the ceiling before he was slammed down on the ground repeatedly.

When the monster stopped, he thought it was finished, and attempted to get back up. It held him down immediately with one hand while the other and numerous limbs began to pound upon his small body until his vision was blurred and his body hurt all over. When it was finished it picked him up by the chest and threw him across the room. He landed right next to the bag of food and almost chuckled remorsefully. He was going to die over food. Great.

The beast that had stood still during its assault leapt towards Kaneki's prone form. Mid stride it had started to become undone, fading away until it revealed Takatsuki underneath, the clothing she wore before abandoned and now scantily clad in bandages that did nothing to cover her more private bits. Finally, all of the red and black was sucked up behind her, absorbed into her kakuho. Kaneki stared in awe, as he watched her plop down on his chest.

She dominated him, he thought, and that's when he admitted, both unconsciously and in his waking mind, that as long as she wanted him to be there, he would be, regardless of his own desires.

"You could be so strong, Egg-kun. You could be like me, but you choose to be Gregor Samson, forever sacrificing yourself for others." She told him longingly. She stretched and reached over to the bag she had brought their food in.

"Egg-kun, open your mouth." She commanded.

Kaneki did as she asked. What other choice did he have? Defiance was not an option when dealing with someone like her. Without warning, a strip of meat fell in his mouth. It was one of the greatest things he had ever tasted, he thought. But it could not compare to what he had consumed the night before. Nothing would.

"Takatsuki-san, why didn't you kill me?" He asked her between rasps.

"Because you could be strong like me." She explained in a simple tone. What other reason is there?

"Who is Eto?" He asked. She dropped another piece of meat in his mouth, watching as he chewed with eyes closed. The pain started to fade away as he healed, pulling him out of the uncomfortable position and placing him in a situation where it would be nice to sleep.

"Eto is my birth name. Tou-san gave it to me." She told him.

Kaneki stood silent as he was being fed for a few more minutes. Takatsuki had actually enjoyed this small little intimate time, regardless of the fact that she had beaten the lights out of him earlier. He chewed took a deep breath, before speaking again.

"May I call you Eto?" He asked her. Her face remained impassive for a while, before taking a strip of meat into her own mouth. She chewed and swallowed, before smiling, the blood peeking out from the corners of her mouth.

"Only if you call me Eto-chan." She responded happily.

"Eto-chan…"

"Yes Egg-kun?"

"How long will we stay here?"

"As long as it takes."

"For what?"

"You'll see."

At that, Kaneki groaned. Why did she have to be so cryptic? Still, the slight pressure of her weight on his chest left him unable to stay awake any longer, as the darkness enfolded him.

**Wow I'm an asshole. It's been 2 weeks and I can only write another 5k words? Shieeeet I'm sorry the ideas don't come so quickly as others. Oh well. I'll try to update sooner, but if it sucks, I won't upload it for the sake of bringing you scheduled updates. **

**Review away!**

**Shawn=Out**


	3. 92 Days with Eto-chan

92 Days With Eto-chan

**AN: When prompted, search up "Mega Man Battle Network 3 OST - T03-B: Tree Of Life ~Piano Arrange~" on youtube. You'll know when. See ya at the end of the chapter(hopefully).**

He lay prone upon a rooftop in the city, looking at the stars in the sky. A languid feeling of happiness filled his entire being, feeling as though it had been far too long since he was able to let his guard down. Next to him was the object of his wonder, Touka Kirishima, staring at the stars as well.

"Kirishima-san?"

"Hm?"

He hadn't known where the question came from, but worded it anyways.

"Is it true you and Koma-san dated?" He asked with a straight face.

She rolled over and looked down at his face with a snarl.

"Who the hell told you that?" She asked angrily. He smiled in response.

"So it's true?"

"No! Enji is a smelly old ape why would I date him, ever?! Stop saying stupid stuff like that." She told him. He simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the cool night air passing between them. Normally, he'd fear her fury, but he had long abandoned feelings like those.

Fear, anxiety, sorrow…

No longer.

"Koma and Touka, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-" He sang happily.

"Shut up!"

"Make me." He dared. He never expected her to sit down on his lap, her knees wrapped around his side before she slammed her palms on his mouth, muffling his protests. She smirked deviously, before pinching his nose and threatening him.

"You gonna stop now?"

He simply stared at her impassively, ridiculously relaxed with a slow heartbeat keeping him from suffocating. Touka grew even more frustrated and sat back on her haunches, grinding into her place on his lap without realizing. She withdrew her hands from his mouth and looked down on him angrily.

"Who told you that?" She asked.

He was unable to respond, still distracted by her positioning on him, namely his groin. She hadn't realized what she was doing, it seemed, so she crossed her arms and tightened her legs in a huff of annoyance, applying more pressure.

He couldn't stop his appendage from rising, then.

When it first happened Touka didn't realize what was going on, but after a moment she felt the rise beneath her. A blush appeared on her face, impossibly red, before she smiled as she did before and ground herself against him harder.

He bit back a moan, but was unable to bite back the gasp that came when she leaned down and kissed him on the lips, chaste at first, but slowly evolving into a heartfelt one. She moaned from the contact as Kaneki moved in tune with her. She continued to grind against him as she began to lick his lips during their intense but amateur lip-lock, begging him for entrance into another world of pleasure, close to their own but far greater in intensity.

"Touka-chan-" He spoke out in a whisper. He sucked in a breath when he felt her small delicate hand trail slowly into his trousers and began to caress his stiffness in rhythm with their kissing, putting him into a trance born through ecstasy.

In the span of the two seconds he had closed his eyes from the pleasant feeling, Touka had stripped both of them bare. His eyes widened as Touka sat down on him, impaling her precious center with his hard plug. He breathed harder and harder as she set a rhythm to grinding upon him.

"You're so… big." She spoke between gasps and moans. This only made him harder as he began to meet her thrust for thrust, building a pressure he'd never experienced ever before. When he opened his eyes his heart fluttered in awe at her beauty.

Flayed out behind her was a pair of red and black wings, defining her as the angel of the night he always knew she was. His savior when he stumbled into the dark. The hand that guided him to Anteiku when he'd first stumbled upon Nishio-san. Her beauty was without equal, he had thought when he first met her, and her strength was the base of his own. He's only strong now because she fed him then. And now, he's only in cloud 9 because she brought him there.

She rode him with a renewed vigor when he joined her fun, soon mumbling incoherently before he felt her clamp around him impossibly tight.

"Kaneki!"

He felt himself explode within her, and watched as her back arched in an almost painful angle with the pleasure she was feeling. She leant down to lay on his chest, breathing heavily as her kagune retracted to the space between her shoulder blades.

He had no words, but felt he had to say something to commemorate the event that just took place.

"Touka-chan…"

He felt a rumble come from her, the sound of an earthquake. It went on for what seemed like forever before it burst out into a laugh in a voice entirely unlike hers. She threw herself back so that she was once again perpendicular with his body and kept laughing.

"Kaneki-kun that was sooo good." He heard her say in a voice that still did not match the face.

"Touka-cha-"

"PFFT HAHAHAHAHAA!"

The laugh brought him back from his dreams to the real world, lying down on the bed. The first thing he noticed was Eto sitting on the floor holding her sides while laughing so much that tears began to spill from the corners of her eyes.

"Eto, what's so funny?" He ground out. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes while Eto just laughed away.

"You-you-your thing!" She managed to get out before erupting in giggles once more. His thing?

"What do you mean?"

"Your dick!" She said with eyes squinted. Upon wording it she pointed at the offending organ that stood at attention under the comforters of the bed they shared. In his sleepy state, it had taken a moment to notice, but when he did his eyes became saucers.

Immediately he covered himself with his hands in combination with the comforter, but was left with a sickly wet feeling in his pants.

"Eugh!" He grimaced.

"You came too!" He heard Eto shout. He threw the comforters off and attempted to hide the huge stain on his trousers while breaking towards the bathroom, doing his best to ignore her fits of laughter. He immediately threw his clothes off and turned the water in the shower to its coldest.

The cold shocked him but served its purpose when he felt his dream borne growth slowly begin to fall. He sighed, exasperated at her reaction. Was she just watching him while he dreamt of doing inappropriate things with Touka on a rooftop?

He took a stool and bucket aside and began to scrub himself as he sat down.

**Day 8**

As he attempted to calm the beet red blush on his face as well as clean at the spot in the middle of his back. In his concentration he didn't hear Eto who had walked in, mouth covered to suppress the giggles from earlier as she snuck up behind him.

"Touka-chan…" She moaned out into his ear.

"AGH!"

He yelled and fell onto the floor, creating another bout of laughter for Eto who had taken another stool to sit down on. She began to bathe herself as she had done for the past week. He had learned that Eto was very liberal in her appearance, seeming to not care one bit whether she was clothed or not. She also hated mornings and had demanded that he not move in bed, even to get up and shower before noon.

Other than that, he had learned nothing about her past. He had asked her why she was so cold to her own father a few days ago, and she had threatened to make him fight for his food again as a response.

Obviously he chose not to ask again.

He had learned other things, like how ghouls worked internally and all the different types of Kagune. He learned his own was a rinkaku-type and began to study on those. He asked Eto if she knew anything about Rize, but she told him that he didn't need to know.

Now, walking through the house to the library he spoke to Eto who seemingly forgot the little incident upon his awakening. She was explaining to him that a lot of celebrities and political officials were ghouls or worked with ghouls under them.

"You're lying." He told her flat-out.

"No I'm serious, why would I lie about that." She replied.

"Gackt, the singer-songwriter is a ghoul?"

"Yup."

"How has no one discovered him yet?!" He declared.

It was confusing how well other ghouls blended into society. He seemed to have significant trouble, to the point of having to congregate with other ghouls until he was strong enough to defend himself and even then the practical parts of human life like eating and the like he struggled with. How did someone with eyes on him at almost all times get away with being a ghoul?

"People have. He just surrounds himself with other ghouls, to make sure no one knows that he actually is one. And if someone does find out, they mysteriously disappear." She told him with a smile. They arrived in the library and took their seats.

This had become a place of calm and quiet in the past week. After their scuffle they had not returned to the 4th floor, but the wounds of battle were still present in the large house, namely in the bump on the ceiling of the library. A memento to the time she used him like a baby rattle, he decided, before removing it from the forefront of his mind.

"That famous guy who made those dumb video games like Mario and stuff." She spoke as she grabbed a random manga from the shelf closest to her seat.

"Miyamoto Sakurai?"

"He hires some people from Aogiri Tree to protect him from that guy, what's his name. The guy who made the final fantasy bull shit." She waved, trying to conjure the name from her mind. It was hard to, as she really didn't care about entertainment that was not in the form of reading.

"Hironobu Sakaguchi? Why would he want to attack Sakurai?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not the islander looking guy, the other one. Fuck, what's his name. He's pretty looking." She trailed off.

"Tetsuya Nomura?"

"Yes! He's a ghoul and has tried before to have Sakurai killed. It's funny really. Ghouls are ridiculously close to humans in their behaviors, but in the end we eat them. It's like they play with their food. You would think the only way to prevail over a ghoul is to co-exist with them. A human dies, a ghoul eats, and that's the way it should be. A lion doesn't give two shits about the opinions of the sheep, and all that stuff. I'd like a world where people and ghouls can co-exist despite our varied eating habits. It wouldn't be easy but it could work. Ghouls don't need to eat too much too often and humans don't actually need to hunt us. Hell, the fact that you and I exist shows just how capable humans and ghouls are if they are willing to cooperate."

Her monologue left him in awe. She looked thoughtful as she said that, peering mindlessly into her volume of Aku no Hana, before she turned a page and a scowl appeared on her face.

"This world is shit the way it is now though, and as strong as I am, I can't do it myself."

"Wait why would Aogiri Tree work for a human?

"So you don't think the CCG is right for the world?"

"Oh that's a good story!" She exclaimed, dropping her book in her chair and leaning forward.

"A story?" He asked.

"Yeah! Tell me, what do you know about the attacks on the 2nd Ward CCG office 10 years ago?"

"It was the last attack by the Ow- that was you?!"

"No, that was Tou-san trying to finish what I started. See I grew up eating ghouls, so human interaction was a whole new world to me. I decided to see what was up with this office of humans who killed ghouls. I thought 'I'm half human and I don't kill humans, why do humans want to kill ghouls?'" She explained.

She smiled deviously, a tell-tale sign that something entertaining happened next, before she continued.

"So I walked up to this guy who was known as one of the investigators in the 3rd ward, yeah? Kagune out and about because I didn't give a fuck at the time, I just wrecked his shit. I was still confused, because he fought me with what appeared to be a kagune in a suitcase. I wanted to see more of these investigators, so I got some followers to help me scope out their office in the 2nd ward. We got a lot of those investigators and did some damage to the office. Then, we attacked the prison in the 23rd ward, you know the one made for ghouls? We freed some ghouls and in turn got more numbers for my cause."

"What was your cause?" Kaneki interrupted.

"At first it was to understand. Then when I learned they hunted us, it was to destroy. And destroy I did, until I attacked the 2nd ward office for a second time. Some old bastard used your little dream-slut's dad's kakuhou to injure me right where it hurts." She told him.

"Where?" He asked. As powerful as she was, it almost seemed unnatural for her to have a weakness to anything, he thought. What could possibly hurt the One-Eyed Owl?

She made the motions to get up slowly, but tossed the book aside and quickly dashed so she was behind him. She took a finger and jabbed it into his back, where his kakuhou lied underneath.

"Here!" She punctuated.

"Agh!"

"Hurts, right?" She asked with a smile, pacing around behind him while he rubbed the sore spot. He never thought that would be her weakness, but after getting practically stabbed with her pointy finger he could understand. It hurt like a bitch.

"Yes." He hissed.

"Good, so when I ran, Tou-san attacked the same place a while later in my place. He got taken down by Reaper-san, and disappeared with his tail between his legs for 10 years. Now he goes by Yoshimura, but that's not the point of this story." She said as she paced.

Kaneki considered the things she had told her. He wanted to ask about Aogiri Tree, but what could she know? Well, it didn't hurt to ask.

"Eto, who is the One-Eyed King?" He asked with a serious expression. She stared at him with impassive eyes. She considered whether or not he had made the connection in the timeline she had presented. But how could he suspect her to be the One-Eyed King? She was only five years older than him, so he couldn't think she was the leader of Aogiri Tree. The consequences were not exactly grave, he couldn't do anything to her. With the lack of fear, she cemented her decision.

"I am."

The world seemed to crash down upon him as he looked at her in the eye. A flash in the form of a memory appeared in his mind's eye.

Touka being battered by Yamori before his abduction.

The feeling of his fingers and toes re-growing.

The chaffing against his ankles and wrists from the bindings.

The hundreds of ghoul experiments gone wrong.

The hundreds of ghouls he's eaten.

Kanou's offer to join Aogiri Tree and see the new world.

The new world…

"That's what he meant! He wanted a world where ghouls and humans can live together! And so do you! You did this to me!" He started to yell, throwing the book in his hands against the wall in anger.

The anger flared in his arteries to his body, it was an unpleasantness coming from his heart. He grabbed at his white hair and pulled while pacing the room. He could understand their motives but he couldn't understand their methods. He **hated** the way Aogiri Tree does things.

"Was it you who had me tortured?!" He yelled at her.

She simply met his gaze with her own unwavering one before responding.

"Don't throw my books, they aren't cheap." She told him.

"Who cares about books? Why didn't you tell me you were the leader of Aogiri Tree?!"

"You never asked."

"You'd think that leading the organization that abducted me and had me tortured is something important to say!"

"Stop yelling."

"No, why did you do it?!" He shouted.

"Do what?"

"Make me into this!" He gestured to his body before his kagune erupted from behind him.

"I'm a monster!"

"I thought you accepted your ghoul side, Egg-kun?" She told him offhandedly, refusing to meet his gaze.

"I was happy…"

"You were going to die because you were thinking with your dick. I had Kanou save your life." She explained. Her patience with his little temper tantrum was thinning, but she would let him have his moment. After all, it was imperative that he be on her side.

"Besides, the scaffolding falling was not an accident." She told him. He immediately stopped his pacing and looked back at her with an incredulous look in his eyes. Until now he had understood that the accident had started everything. Perhaps even his first meeting with Rize.

"I thought it was an accident." He spoke quietly.

"It wasn't."

"Then who did it? Aogiri?"

"No."

"Then who did?" He snapped impatiently.

"That would be telling." She told him coyly before getting up and walking past him to the stairs. Kaneki looked at her, controlling his facial expression but feeling an ire rise within him.

"Where are you going?"

"Follow me, I need you to do something upstairs." She told him.

As soon as they reached the fourth floor, Kaneki felt his heart rate increase in anticipation for another battle with the girl turned owl. He looked at the scars the room held from the gaping hole in the wall that let the draft in to the indent on the ground from when it grabbed him and pummeled him on the ground. There was still blood where he finally lost consciousness after their scuffle and the raw stench of it still hung in the air.

Eto strutted into the room and turned around once she reached the center. She had a no nonsense face and motioned for him to come in.

"Sit down." She commanded.

"Why?"

"Just do it, jeez." She told him impatiently before sitting down herself. Kaneki decided to humor her and sat in front of her.

"Now, you have a rinkaku type, right? Release one arm." She told him.

Kaneki looked at her blankly, trying to think of what exactly was she asking him. What is one part? Did she mean its original form? He focused on the ever-present prickly feeling that resided in his back, before he felt the 8 extra limbs stretch and form hands at the end behind him. It was a feeling he detested for a long time after he was first turned into a ghoul, the extension of his body had felt so unnatural, but he had come to embrace it. It always made him feel stronger and more connected to Rize, which until his last encounter with her was not a good feeling.

"There. What did Kanou do to Rize?" He asked her as the 8 thin lanky arms flicked impatiently behind him.

A thick piece of what looked like red crystal impaled his arm, making him gasp. Eto had what looked like a plumage of feathers over her right shoulder, but her facial expression hadn't changed.

"What was that for?" he hissed. She smiled at him like she always did when she was up to no good before responding.

"I said one arm, not 8." She explained. "Now try again."

He withdrew the extra limbs and pushed the crystal in his arm through completely to let it heal before focusing on the feeling in his back once more. He willed for only one extra limb to be let out and felt a smirk of satisfaction crawl onto his face when a single long arm appeared behind him.

The feeling only lasted a short second when another arm erupted from his back, opposite the first, before another crystal shot towards him and lodged itself in his shoulder, making him hiss out once again.

He snarled and withdrew his kagune before having it rip out once more combined together as one thick arm with three fingers at the end. Eto looked at him with the straight face once again before smiling slightly.

"Not exactly what I was thinking, but okay." She told him. "Now, you see how hard it is to control? You need to see Kanou.."

Kaneki considered her words carefully. She was telling him that he needed to eat more ghouls, but where would they be able to find them at this point? He knew that he never showed his face to the CCG, but he did not want to risk it.

He felt himself shudder with the sudden realization that he was no longer considering his escape from her.

"So we're going back to…" He trailed off, almost afraid to name his place of origin.

"Well, yes. And we're staying at your apartment!" She exclaimed. She seemed to be very eager. He was so surprised by her lack of worry that he couldn't help but ask.

"What if the CCG recognizes me? And who's to say I won't try to run as soon as I hit land?" He challenged.

Her cheery smile widened, threatening to split her ears before she responded, a pair of mismatched eyes that never lost the eerie effect they had set themselves upon his.

"You know very well what would happen if you ran, Egg-kun."

Giving no outward reaction, he quelled any feelings of defiance towards her. Besides, apart from some rather disturbing truths and her explosively violent way of dealing with things, she has been nice to him.

Far nicer than Yamori was, at least.

"You said that we were going to Kanou. What are we going to him for?"

"You'll see."

He found himself not wanting to ask, either out of dread or lack of curiosity. His kagune had long since withdrawn, but he pondered on the nature of it. For a while he thought that he had a good amount of control over his abilities.

It occurred to him that in every fight that he has been in since the run-in he had with Yamori he had no reason to practice restraint. The idea of being controlled by his body's thirst for battle and food was unsettling.

"When do we leave?" He asked her quietly.

"In an hour." She said casually.

"What? Aren't there things we have to pack?" He exclaimed.

"Not really, no. Your mask is hanging in the room though, so go get it." She told him before walking out of the room towards the stairs.

Eto began to map out the area around them. They were currently on what used to be a very small island called Rakuen. It was equidistant to Udone-Shima and Tokyo. As the owl she could swim extremely fast, but Kaneki would weigh her down and after the Anteiku Raid the CCG was being extra careful about their patrols around the border. The window of opportunity would be very small, too small for her to ferry kaneki with her.

She walked down to the second floor, watching as Kaneki rushed inside the room they shared to grab his mask. She walked into the room that had previously housed her father and began to peruse the desk drawers under the console. Many a vial and syringe she ignored before she found a syringe that had a finer point than others and was filled with red liquid. She hid it behind her back with one hand as she walked towards the room.

"Egg-kun!" She called out.

Kaneki came rushing out, mask in hand. He could almost hear the playful tone in her voice, but he had now just assumed that was her usual demeanor. She had a hand behind her back, obviously hiding something, and a contained smile that told more horror stories than a night around the campfire.

"Eto-san, what are you hiding behind your ba-"

He never got to finish his sentence before he saw her pounce and felt an intense pain in his left eye. He fell back and clenched at the leather mask in his hand as the white hot pain shot from his eye to his brain and then through his body. The experience was not unlike the first time he released his kagune, though, so as the pain began to ebb away he tried to get up.

Eto sat upon her inexperienced Egg-kun, slowly injecting him with the red liquid in the syringe. Her heart fluttered with anticipation at the results of her little experiment. Kanou had made the concoction by taking pint after pint of her own blood and extracting RC cells from the many samples. He explained that the RC Factor in her body sat at 24,000. At first she had thought this number inconsequential, until he explained that RC cells are what make a kagune stronger, and that the highest recorded RC factor in history sat at 8000. She requested that he make something of a super juice a long time ago, intending on using it should someone like Reaper-san decide they want to hunt her.

By his words, 'If you inject yourself with this, you will probably lose all semblance to your human side and any other human or ghoul will probably become as strong as you, if my theory is correct. I haven't been wrong.'

And he hasn't, and now, injecting her little toy half-ghoul with her essence that was described as 'concentrated RC cells' and 'the body of a ghoul with an RC factor of 20,000 in a syringe'. She wasn't nervous, because if she was right, as she so often was, and if Kanou was right for his own sake, then her little Egg-kun would be fine. Hell, he'd be perfect for her intentions at least.

Oh, he was starting to squirm!

Kaneki was indeed squirming under her as he felt the foreign substance enter his body. The feeling of hot pain had left almost immediately and was replaced by an unbearable pressure within. He felt his back almost explode, his ghoul bits bursting through his skin. When she felt him lift off the ground slightly, Eto jumped off and took a few steps back. This was something she had to observe after all.

Kaneki's kagune launched him off his back and on his knees as it continued to extend in all directions. The jungle of red and black that spouted from his back went unnoticed to him as he tried his hardest to expel this feeling of unattained release from himself. It was as if he hadn't urinated in years or how he felt when he last ate human food, but ultimately, it was indescribable on its own. At this point he was on all fours, shivering as the injection coursed through his body.

The forest of red and black emanating from his back had stop growing as he let out an agonized scream that brought a smile to Eto's face. Now all he had to do was compress it like she had done a long time ago.

"Compress it! Don't lose yourself to it, take it over!" She encouraged. Kaneki went on screaming as the hundred limbs extending from his back began to twitch.

For a moment, a stark darkness appeared before him when he opened his eyes. He saw everything and nothing. He saw his mask, he saw Anteiku, he saw Rize, he saw his mother… The images passed be at light speed repeatedly, but it always stopped for a second when he saw himself. There were no ways to label that person anymore. He was no longer a peaceful ghoul or a naïve human, nor was he against Anteiku or against the CCG. He saw a boy who wanted to be cared for unconditionally as he had cared for others. A young ghoul who knew nothing of his place in the world where all like him had chosen sides in the long standing war.

Then the boy began to change shape. First his face turned sinister as a kagune born mask appeared on his face, and this made Kaneki himself grimace. The boy had no need to change himself to fit in. This reaction made the boy change once again, his kagune disappearing and his hair black as night. The mismatched eyes had left the image as well, leaving it eerily similar to how Kaneki was a long time ago. He didn't want the boy to abandon all the new wonderful friends he had made, people who had helped him when he was at his lowest.

The lack of satisfaction changed the boys for again his hair turning white once more as his kagune began to extend much like he was in reality. As the red moved out from behind the boy, he smiled. A smile that said the boy was confident and had ambitions. One that told of changes to come, a world where people like him, ghouls and humans do not have to fight.

Then he knew what the boy wanted. He wanted to end the fighting.

The boy's kagune began to wrap around him, tightening around his small frame as it changed colors. The black was no longer apparent, only red and the purest white he had seen before. It wrapped around him, leaving him in what looked like a cloak of red covering plated white armor. The look on the boy's face never changed, however, making Kaneki himself smile.

Eto watched on as the boy changed.

Or better yet, evolved!

He had fallen on his stomach about 10 minutes ago and had went on writhing as the massive RC cell powered bunch of limbs had moved in short spasms and flicks for the entire 20 minutes of his acclimation of her juices.

She licked her lips as she thought about the phrase. Egg-kun taking in her juices. It sounded deliciously inappropriate. Especially after watching the mass of black and red become white and red and compress itself.

His body's reactions to Eto's injection had done damage to the walls of the hallway, some breaking through into other rooms and a gaping hole in the roof. The white and red extensions of himself had now changed in nature, no longer just being a hulking mass of RC cells. It formed around him, increasing in density as it became what looked like armor to Eto.

Then he began to stand. He moved slowly, first one hand, then one knee, then the other arm on the wall, followed by stumbling along the floor trying to regain his balance as the hooded red cloak masked his features. The armor was form fitting, not unlike what he wore during his Aogiri hunt but colored white completely, as well as having a more fleshy, hardened texture as if the back of a beetle.

Eto watched in shock. She had expected him to either shun the ghoul side of himself and lose control at the smallest implication of danger or welcome it and become something more akin to her own kakuja. She took a second to think on it, then smiled wryly. Of course.

"You WOULD be a white knight, wouldn't you Egg-kun?" She asked as he stood at his full height. He'd grown a few inches, probably due to the armor, but he'd maintained the thin form he was accustomed to.

It took him a moment to speak, his mind a jumbled mess of cries of agony and shouts of victory. Above those was only one thing, though: resolute determination. He dropped the mask in his hand, and pulled back his hood.

His hair, tainted by many a lilac strand stayed the same in shape and volume. A white mask adorned his face, covering everything up to his nose and making Eto think about Tatara, one of her subordinates.

"We're not going anywhere." He spoke calmly. All emotion had left his voice, but in his heart a fire with infinite supply burned, ready. Be it to fight, to run, to argue, to explore, **to act**. The moment he took a step forward Eto jumped back, smiling at him before running up the stairs.

He smiled under his mask, willing to do something, anything. He felt ready to take on the world and then take on himself, should he need to, and that's what was only one part of his mind's work. He planned with each step, to do everything and nothing.

He would return to the people of Anteiku, regardless of Eto's wishes.

He would make sure Hideyoshi was alright, and avenge him should he need to.

He would find out who played a hand in his creation.

After his own priorities were in order, he would do what he felt he needed to for the world, starting from Tokyo.

Before long, he had reached an impatient looking Eto on the 4th floor. A soft song on the Piano was playing from a radio that sat on a far corner in the room, seeming completely out of place in such a place She wasted no time in trying to hide her intentions before a flurry of black and red left her back, covering her until she became the monster known as the One-Eyed Owl.

The monstrous Eto shot a bladed arm towards Kaneki, who simply lifted a now bladed arm himself to shove it aside. He continued in his stride, his tattered red cloak blowing in the wind from the gaping hole in the wall. Another bladed arm attempted to intercept his approach, but this time he dealt with it by grabbing it on the blade and inspecting it.

Eto simply abandoned the limb altogether, allowing it to fade before rushing at Kaneki with a blade poised to cut him at the waist. He simply hopped over it, before another one came crashing down at his head. His arm came up to push the attack aside before he felt himself get grabbed by the leg.

Eto flipped him over, making sure he was helpless in his dangling form. She reeled back a huge fist made of many limbs meant to knock him out in one punch as she sighed internally.

'Don't tell me you lost to the same trick again, Egg-kun.'

Kaneki had calmly bent at the knee, a phantom pain in his hamstring as he propelled himself to bend awkwardly until he was facing the beast's chest. On his fingertips, the sharp edges of the white armor became more defined before he started to pick away at the chest of the thing, with one voiced intention.

"Let me see that pretty face, Eto."

Eto almost laughed giddily, thinking of what she should do against him now. It seemed that getting close to him would only mean her being torn out of her kakuja. But who's to say that would be a _bad_ thing?

As Kaneki clawed further and further into her kakuja-borne chest, she fell away, allowing it to dissolve and drop Kanki who landed gracefully on one hand before flipping back on his feet. He saw the bandaged Eto standing a ways away from him, a flurry of projectiles being shot from her kagune while a pair of tentacles shot their way to the sides, allowing him no way to escape.

Walking resolutely towards her, he took on the ranged crystal attack full on, only dodging the ones aimed for his face, before breaking into a full on sprint, rushing her before she could react. He threw a punch at her face that she dodged easily, but turned out to be a decoy as a fast hand wrapped around her plumage kagune, crushing it in his hand before Eto allowed it to dissolve.

The tentacles returned to wrap around him, but were stopped by a sea of blades appearing around his chest, shredding it apart and rendering another one of Eto's tools useless. As they were still rather close, Kaneki shot a knee at her stomach that was blocked by her hands.

In response he extended his knee forwards and outwards, aiming to take one of her legs with his own to break of her balance before returning it to leave him in a wide stance, allowing him to grab low at her other ankle while she was still recovering.

Picking her up, he tossed her across the room towards the door. She recovered quickly and looked at him excitedly. Of course she wasn't exactly trying but it was fun to watch this new Egg-kun flaunt his new abilities. Besides, this would set good headway to when she needed him for her true intentions.

She had not expected him to pin her to the door by the hands, only struggling enough to give the illusion of a true fight to her latest test subject, before he spoke once more.

"Tell me the things you've done." He said calmly.

"You were originally kidnapped because of an order from me."

He increased the pressure in her hands as the sound of the music intensified.

"More."

"I was going to use Tou-san to create more half-ghouls."

"More!"

The pressure became painful.

"Fuck! I've been planning for you to be my successor." She hissed out.

Her hair was tussled and her cheeks flushed, losing the boastful confidence she once had and left a panting girl with mismatched eyes. His kakuja had begun to fall away, his red cloak fading in the wind and layers of his white armor coming retreating into his back leaving him shirtless but in the shorts of his old outfit.

He set Eto down before stepping away and looking at her with an unmasked smile.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He told her. He walked past her through the door.

Eto hurried to turn off the stereo in the far end of the room before running to catch up with him. She met him at the stairs.

"I'm leaving soon." He said offhandedly.

"Who said you were allowed to?" She asked in an offended tone.

"Are you willing to put in the effort to stop me?"

She turned away with a pout on her face. "Shut up."

"Am I allowed to bring those without a place to go here?"

"Huh?"

"It's still your house." He explained.

"I don't care. As long as they don't make noises early in the morning." She explained. They had reached the room and along the way he picked up his mask and put it on the dresser.

"You're going to sleep, Egg-kun?" She asked quietly.

"If you're going to call me anything, you should call me Billy-kun. Or Kid-san. White Goat-san?" he let the names hang in the air.

"You'll just be Kaneki-kun then." She said as she unwrapped her bandages before him.

"So you'll acknowledge the fact that I've hatched?" He asked as he got under the covers.

"Only because I made you."

"You said yourself that you want me to succeed you. You need me to be strong."

"Good night, Hatched Egg-kun."

"Good night, Eto-chan."

He lay there, endlessly planning away his future while Eto tried to get to sleep. At least one of them was unsuccessful at their toils, however.

Eto had grabbed at his right index finger and pulled it to her face before she began licking at it and nipping it to draw blood before the wound closed instantly. She began to suck at it not long after, finally garnering a response from Kaneki.

"Eto?"

"You taste good."

"I bet I do."

That night, the abyss of darkness that polluted Kaneki's dreams was replaced with a sea of white filled with flowering lilacs. If he focused his mind's eye he could see Eto dancing amongst the flowers in the distance.

**Aw man. Someone is going to hate this. I just hope someone comes to love it. Anyways, here's your Bi-monthly chapter. I was thinking, I could do one shorter chapter a week or keep them a bit long and hand them out every 2 weeks, or have them even longer and hand them out once a month. For those who review, tell me what you like! No worries, this isn't a OP!Kaneki story. I will admit that I have Kaneki slightly out of character but I am trying very hard for him to remain true to his original self.**

**Shawn=Out**


	4. 91 Days with the Nuclear Family

**91 Days with Eto-chan**

The field of flowers he lay in was accentuated by a beautiful melody coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. The sky was a boundless stretch of white, lacking moon, sun and stars, but never taking away from its beauty. The light prancing of a girl whose hair matched the flowers could be felt in the ground as he closed and breathed in the white, uncorrupted and pure, just like him.

**Day 9**

His eyes opened slowly with the faint light of the rising sun coming in from the window beside the bed. He could feel his right arm still being held by Eto's own. Sleeping had come with an almost incorrigible darkness before, as well as constant discomfort partnered with embarrassment. He'd never been so intimately close to someone before, and it left him lacking sleep sometimes, but no longer.

Now, he felt implicitly comfortable, almost to the point of not wanting to rise for the day.

Almost.

"Kaneki-kun, go to sleep." He heard his bed partner mumble. During the time she spent nipping at his hand the night before he began to consider the humanity in all things. Even someone like Eto, daughter of Yoshimura-san, the feared and monstrous Owl, _The One Eyed King_, had something to link them back to humanity, while those who chose to abandon such an integral part of themselves would perish.

Those like Yamori, or himself during his fight defending Anteiku, or even Rize would lose their humanity and ultimately themselves in the process. It seemed to just be the law of things. Perhaps the answer to everyone keeping their humanity was for those who only had that to be protected and those who threatened it were to be eliminated?

The last thing he wanted was for people to end up like he did at his worst. And to make sure such things wouldn't happen, he had to get off the bed and begin preparing for his trip back to Tokyo.

"Eto, we must leave."

"Whyyyyyyyyyyy." She whined as she turned over and let go of his hand.

"It is noon already. I'm getting up." He told her before jumping over her prone form and making the bed bounce from his leap. She groaned and turned to where he used to be in order to ignore his commands, but the idea went out the window.

Literally.

Kaneki grabbed at the comforters and rolled them up in his hands, stealing away Eto's warm sleepy world under the covers before he reared back and threw it at the closed window. The glass gave way, shattering as the thick comforters landed in the water with an audible _splash_.

A disheveled looking Eto glared at him when he next looked down, but he only smiled in response.

This new confidence was overwhelming but eye-opening at the same time. If he searched deep enough, he knew that a lot of the reasons he didn't smile or feel happy is because he was afraid. Afraid of what happened to Anteiku, afraid of the CCG, even afraid of Eto.

"You're getting a little cocksure, aren't you?" She told him as she rubbed at her eyes and sat up on the bed. She was unsure as to why his attitude had changed so much with her little injection the day before, but she could only explain it in the way many things worked when it came to intermingling things like blood, organs or more specifically in this case, RC cells. She was confident in herself and that must've transferred over to Kaneki.

Not to say the confidence was unwarranted.

"I guess I am. I have a few things to ask you." He told her. He offered her a hand which she used to rise and start walking towards the bathroom they shared.

"Shoot." She told him sleepily.

"Where exactly are we again?" He asked.

"A few miles North of Oshima." She responded as she turned on the water in the bath. Kaneki followed behind her, carrying two stools and a bucket.

"Would there happen to be a plane that we could catch a ride on back to Tokyo?" He asked as he drenched a cloth into the bucket full of water and soap. Eto did the same, washing at her face before responding.

"Nope. After the CCG's raid on your place they've tightened up security, demanding that all who want to take a flight in or out are required to take blood tests. You and I could go through the scanner fine, but if they tried to take some of our blood..."

"The needle would break. Does the phone in the room where Yoshimura-san was in work? I need to make a call." He explained as he washed away the soap and began to dry off. Eto stood up to join him. Soon they were dressed and walking in the halls.

"Yup. Who ya gonna call?" She asked.

"An ally."

Kaneki used the computer in the room to search for a name he hadn't heard in a long time. He almost forgot what the establishment was called, he only knew that they supplied masks like his own.

Ah, here it was.

HySy ArtMask Studio. He retrieved the number before turning to the phone and dialing it, ignoring an impatient and still very sleepy Eto who say on the desk.

_Hello?_

"Yes, is this Uta?"

A silence befell the line that made Kaneki smile. He hadn't been expecting him to live, it seems, and this was as good a time as any to test the loyalties of other ghouls he knew.

_Who is this?_

"It's Gantai, Uta-san."

_Ken Kaneki?_

"Unless you've issued my mask to someone else, it's the one and only."

_How?_

"Some things are better left said in person, some things better left unsaid, Uta-san."

_After what happened over in 20, I didn't think you would…_

"Well I am. Have you heard from anyone?"

He would play the game with Uta until he revealed his true colors, though he was sure that he was on the right side. For now, at least.

_A few days after, Yomo brought Touka and Hinami here. The CCG is spreading their search soon, though, so they have to leave soon._

"Were their faces seen?"

_No, but they're requiring blood tests by everyone in Tokyo. All who go unaccounted will be brought in for forceful testing, they say._

"Wouldn't that mean that you have to leave as well, Uta-san?" he replied. It seems that Uta did not expect him to be so well spoken after the incident.

_Some things better left unsaid and all that, Kaneki-kun._

"Okay. I'm going to need a way to get back to Tokyo."

_Where are you?_

"A few miles North of Oshima."

_How'd you get there?_

"Not important. Any ideas?"

_No, sorry._

"It is fine. I'll find a way to get back to Tokyo. Let Touka and Hinami know that I am on my way."

_I'll be sure to. Good luck._

He hung up at that point before looking at Eto.

"Anything?" She asked. She had a plan just in case he hadn't found a proper form of transportation, but it was annoying and required her to dive deep until she got into the sewers in order to enter through the 24th ward.

"Nope."

"Well, how good can you play the 'stranded and scared college student who's boat sunk along with some random girls when you decided to let loose and become a delinquent starting with your hair?'"

"Quite well, I suppose."

"Good."

He didn't know how, but about 2 hours later he and Eto swam on the edge of Keihin Port, watching various CCG manned boats as they went about border patrol.

"I'm ready." He told her. With a nod, Eto dove into the water, her form soon becoming illegible amongst the waves. Now, he had to do his part.

"Help, please!" He yelled into the distance. Immediately one of the boats veered towards him until it pulled up beside him. A police officer helped him board the ship with the use of a safety tube. Kaneki pretended to gasp for air and sputter out sea water with his every breath in an attempt to look convincing.

The police officer patted his back, helping him cough out water that wasn't there before he kneeled down in front of him.

"You all right?" He asked in a gruff voice. Kaneki's eyes shifted upwards, looking at the man's nametag.

Bōto Shojikinawa.

"Yes sir." He responded.

When Kaneki looked up fully, the man spoke once more.

"I'm officer Shojikinawa of the TMPD. You must be tired and sick, but Mr. Hirako here needs to ask you a few questions."

The man mentioned stood a few inches taller than the young half-ghoul and looked down on him. A dove. Well, he knew his story well.

"Hello, Hirako-san." He said politely. The man was unusually… plain. No facial marks or expressions that could help tell him apart from a crowd. His gray hair was of an unbelievably dull shade as well, making him seem like any other person in Tokyo.

An admirable trait for an investigator, thought Kaneki.

"What's your name?"

"Ken Kaneki."

"Well, Kaneki-san, can you explain what happened to you?" The man asked, having him sit down on a crate.

"I… I was stressed out because of school and pressure from exams, so I decided to just say 'Screw it all!' I did some things, starting with my hair and started hanging out with these guys."

"Who were these people, Kaneki-san?" the investigator asked.

"They were like role models at the time, they didn't care about anything and I wanted to be the same. Their names were Ishida and Onoki." He explained. His voice didn't waver one bit in the next part of his story.

"They took me to a boat for a 'Rite of Passage' as they called it. It turned out it was just a prank to dump me on an island halfway to Miyake."

The man scrutinized him, trying to find holes in his story. Without more evidence, he couldn't exactly become accusatory, and the blood tests were already causing outcries in the mainland.

"How long ago did this happen?"

"It's been a few days…"

"How many days?"

Kaneki looked up at the accusatory investigator. The young man understood why, though. If someone like Eto decided they wanted to wreak havoc in Tokyo and they weren't detected by the doves guarding the border, it would be their heads. Specifically his.

"3, to be exact." He responded. He couldn't let the investigator link him in any way to Anteiku. His white hair, though now tainted, was very attention catching as well as recognizable. He was sure that one of the investigators who survived their run-in with Eto would immediately be suspicious of him.

The investigator all but interrogated him on his supposed adventure with the group of men, but Kaneki's story never faltered. After a sigh, the man had him ferried him back to the shores of Tokyo.

The officer who had first helped him aboard, Shojikinawa, had given him a hoodie for the slight chill as well as a pair of shoes and sent him off with his best wishes. He had planned to stick to the shadows until he reached the 4th ward, but the hoodie had done wonders for keeping him discrete.

_What a stroke of luck._

So began his trek. He had been dropped off in the 3rd ward and had made it a point to walk through the 13th in order to get to his destination. The first ward was infested with doves, and he had no need to fight.

A mere 20 minutes later found him in front of the steps to the HySy ArtMask Studio. He smiled, remembering the time when he and Touka had come to get his mask done, the mask he still held onto in his pocket. He walked down the stairs and into the store. There was a moment of silence as he let the door close completely, before a man he recognized as Uta came walking out.

"May I help you?" he drawled out while rubbing an eye. His stride fell immediately after noticing who it was that had entered his shop. Kaneki watched the mask maker closely, trying to find any kind of emotion in the man's face, but only found slight surprise as well as a small bit of apathy.

"Oh. Please, come in." He told him politely. Kaneki followed the man into the back room of the shop.

"They're pretty shaken up, and the little one is scared of not having a place to go. I told them you were coming, but the rabbit girl was convinced I was only saying it to make them feel better."

Kaneki smiled at the door before turning to Uta. He still had that feeling that the delinquent looking individual was only half on his side, but he had no reason to be suspicious yet.

"Thank you, Uta-san. You understand you saved them, yes?"

"I don't do bad by my customers."

Kaneki simply nodded, before turning the door knob slowly and walking in.

Hinami sat on a bed reading a book by Sen Takatsuki, making Kaneki smirk, and Touka was listening to music and scrolling through her phone while leaning against the wall. She looked just as he had left her, they both did, and it brought warmth to his heart that he could not contain.

Hinami spoke as she looked up.

"Yes, Uta-sa-"

When she saw him, the look of shock had cut off her speech completely. Before long, tears began to pool in her eyes, before she bound off the bed towards a kneeling Kaneki who took her in his arms. She began to sob and hiccup between her syllables, until she got the words clear enough for him to hear.

"Niisan!"

He rubbed at her back and attempted to sooth her before.

Touka, who was too engrossed in her phone to notice the new arrival, had just taken her earphones off. With a sigh she let her head rest against the wall and her eyes close.

"Touka."

They snapped open.

In her eyes, he wasn't real. He was simply a figment of her imagination, her mind's attempt to nurture her aching heart. Or her mind's way of reminding her that he had left a scar in her heart that would never heal after his departure.

And then, as Hinami wrapped her arms around his waist, he smoothed her hair down, attempting to relax her. Touka began to shake, slightly at first, but it grew in intensity as the seconds passed. A scowl was present on her face as tears welled in her one visible eye, and the scowl only got deeper as she attempted to stop herself from crying. He hadn't noticed, but she had let her hair grow, as it now went past her neck to the top of her back. The bangs had stayed the same, however, completing her look as the Touka he knew and cherished.

She stood up to look him in the eye, but found that she had to look up to meet them. It had only been a few months, but he had changed so much. The strands of off-color hair that polluted the white she had not yet accustomed herself to, the extra inches in height, the calming aura he exuded. It was almost as if he had become everything she wished he could be and more.

A perfect combination of the helpless yet happy boy she met so long ago and the ghoul who had discovered himself and became strong enough to defeat her.

"Hinami-chan, allow me to talk with Tou-" Kaneki said as he pried her off him but was cut off quickly by Touka.

"Hinami, wait here, we'll be right back." She said as she opened the door wider allowing him to step out backwards. Uta leaned against the wall, watching them with bored eyes as Touka pressed forward until Kaneki's back was against the wall. She stood still, still trembling and not allowing him to see her face.

Then she struck, a hammer fist at his chest that almost hurt, followed by another, before she let her head rest on them and her shaking started to synchronize with sobs coming from her.

He wanted to comfort her, at least with a hug, so he did.

She pulled the way a moment before he could close the embrace, however, before rubbing at her eyes. She choked back a sob before she spoke.

"I… I-I thought you were… How do I know it's you?" She asked in a low tone.

He frowned. Why wouldn't it be him?

Yes, he's changed, but he felt more like himself than ever, despite his altered appearance.

"I never got used to the hair, now look at you. And you're taller. Who are you?" She asked. He still couldn't see her face, and it worried him. It then dawned on him that she is feeling now as he felt when he first woke in Eto's house. He was terrified for them, actually.

If she couldn't believe it was him now, how sure was he that she would be alright? Had he come to trust Eto's word that much?

"I… I understand things better now." He explained. He didn't know how else to word it delicately. What would he say, that the One-Eyed Owl injected him with her concentrated RC cells and changed him? She had seen what he had become during the fight against the CCG, so he could understand if she was scared.

True to the Touka fashion, she became angry and put a finger to his chest accusingly. He could see her eyes now, red with tears, but still very menacing.

"Oh that explains every-fucking-thing now, doesn't it?" She told him angrily.

"Touka-chan I-"

"Don't 'Touka-chan' me!" She yelled, imitating his voice. "We were worried SICK. Hinami cried for days! What do you have to say for yourself? What makes you think you can come back now?!"

Kaneki was frowning now, sad that she felt so betrayed. But it's not as if she was wrong, he did leave them behind. He refused to speak to her for a long time and had only returned to defend the home he had abandoned as if it was his right.

"You're right."

"That's all you have to say?!" She yelled.

"No. I have somewhere safe for you and Hinami and Koba-san and Itori-san."

"Itori, Koba and the manager, they're…" She trailed off. She meant that they were dead, or thought to be at least.

He had expected losses, but he knew the manager to be fine. He remembered, if only faintly, Itori and Koba escaping through route V14. They may have been cut off, since Arima had no owl to fight after Eto had taken away Yoshimura and himself. He felt saddened, but his vision was clear. He needed to make sure those who were left were safe, starting with Hinami and Touka. He could find Yomo on his way to meeting Eto.

He turned to Uta.

"Uta-san, how much longer can they stay here?"

"According to Itori, it looks like they're searching 19 tonight. They did 14 and 15 yesterday, so they'll start searching us as the last ring, starting tomorrow if they're pacing correctly. I'm leaving tonight." He explained.

Kaneki frowned. He wouldn't have time to meet Kanou and bring Touka and Hinami to Rakuen, and bringing them along to meet Kanou was an absolute no, in Hinami's case at least.

He sighed. Eto was going to be angry, but the truth of the matter was Hinami and Touka were infinitely more important than a meeting with Kanou. He cemented his decision before turning to Touka.

"We're leaving now, collect anything that you need." He told her.

"What the hell gives you the right to boss us around?!" She yelled.

"Either you come willingly or I drag you there. I'm sure Hinami would have no problem following me. Your safety is what is most important to me." He explained.

"That wasn't the case when you decided that hunting Aogiri was more important!"

"Things have changed, Touka-chan." He explained in a soft voice.

"Hell yeah, they've changed, you don't have a say in what we do!"

Then, true to his former self, he let his head fall and a somber expression appeared on his face. He seriously did not want to argue with her upon meeting. However right she was, she needed to know that everything he was doing now was for their safety. But how he could get through to her was lost upon him.

"Neechan, he's trying to help, let's go with him!"

Hinami stood in front of the open door, cheeks puffed in anger.

"Hinami, go back insi-" Touka commanded, but was quickly cut off by the younger girl.

"Why are you being mean to Niisan?!"

"He abandoned us like we were last week's trash!"

"He changed because of what Aogiri did! Now he's being nice and you're being really mean!"

"You don't get it, you're too young!"

"When will I be old enough then, Neechan!?" Hinami yelled out loud. Uta, who had been playing with his Kakugan, had been waiting patiently for them to leave his shop so he could lock up and head towards 24.

"Touka, I want you to be safe." He spoke softly. Now he felt lost. The high of confidence he had felt recently had been crushed in her rejection. It was certainly grounding, and had forced him to realize that in order to accomplish his goals he needed more than an easygoing attitude or a friendly demeanor to bring people to his side, even those close to him. His ideas were outrageous at best, but would be carried through. It was up to him as to how hard it would be.

"Where is it?" Touka spoke softly.

Her anger had subsided, and she still felt disrespected, but if it meant safety for Hinami, she would compromise.

"It is an island house in the south."

"Whose house is it?"

"The person who rescued me owns it."

"Who is that?"

"I'm not able to reveal their identity because it is not mine to reveal."

Touka sighed impatiently before walking into the room. He heard her speak while gathering their things.

"There was a time when I could read you like a book. Now you're all secrets and ambiguity."

He gave a sad smile, as he could tell she missed how he used to be, before Anteiku was destroyed, before he was taken by Yamori…

"Niichan, let me show you the book I'm reading!" Hinami yelled before running inside. Despite the hardships she had faced, she was still the same bubbly hearted girl he had cherished. It made him happy, and solidified his resolve to make a world where children could live and be happy like she could and not this twisted hateful thing they lived in now.

Out she came with a book in her hand, _The Hanged Man's Macguffin_. He smiled, realizing how far Eto's books had gone to parallel his own life. _The Hanged Man's Macguffin_ was a book about a man who had been convicted of murder in the early 1800's and was sent to be hung. The man escaped and made it a point to chase a woman for whom he felt nothing for. His search was fruitless, but he had found himself along the way. Upon finding the woman, he found that he had no reason to speak to her any longer, and had disappeared into the sunset.

He likened it to how he was after his torture, mindlessly searching and killing anything associated with Aogiri Tree.

"Ah, I've read that one. How do you like it so far?" He asked her.

"It's really interesting, but why does the hanged man chase Suki?" She asked.

He chuckled at her impatience before rubbing the top of her head affectionately.

"Read further, Hinami-chan."

10 minutes found them making good time while walking through the 13th ward. There was a ship heading towards Oshima in the Tokyo Port, in the 3rd ward. Eto had told him this ship was manned by ghouls, meaning it would be easy to convince them to let his party on.

He was taken out of his ramblings when he noticed a familiar individual walking behind them. It seemed that Touka had noticed as well, as she had quieted Hinami's animated questions on his own whereabouts.

"Kaneki."

"I see him. He's an investigator, the first one I met when I got back." He explained. His hood was drawn, concealing his identity from their pursuer, but Touka and Hinami were revealed. If this man thought them to be ghouls, it would be necessary to have him dealt with. As much as he didn't want to kill someone, he would not tolerate anyone who would danger the lives of those precious to him, especially Hinami and Touka.

Besides, the CCG took down Anteiku, a peaceful ghoul organization. The tables have turned.

"I'll take care of him. Wait for me at the dock, and try not to let any investigators see your faces, especially you, Hinami-chan." He told them.

"Niichan, what are you going to do?"

"Meet with a friend."

As they walked on ahead, Kaneki turned into the grass and began to walk towards the underpass near the ocean, intent on drawing away the man's attention if he was being hunted. The man had stopped following Touka and Hinami and had now started walking more intently towards him. Kaneki turned a sharp corner, now in the underpass but behind a shop, taking the moment where he could not be seen to turn around and wait for the man.

The investigator he recognized as Take Hirako stood before him, a blank look etched on his face.

"Hirako-san." He addressed.

"Ken Kaneki. Or should I say Gantai?"

He stood in a rigid stance, grip tight on his suitcase while Kaneki practiced a relaxed, non-confrontational one.

Gantai(Eyepatch). Short white hair. One eyed ghoul. Disappeared after the Anteiku Raid alongside both Owls. Kishou Arima had seen the boy before, making sure to note the boy's name as a suspect. Ken Kaneki. Recordings of the docks do not show him leaving or entering Tokyo in the past few days. Bloodthirsty. Renamed Centipede.

Hirako surveyed all the information he had on his potential adversary. His suspect's reaction would determine whether or not he was who Hirako thought him to be.

Kaneki saw only one way to go about the interaction at that point: honesty.

"And if I am?"

Hirako gave no response, clicking a button on his suitcase as he drew it back. Out of it came a sword that seemed to appear from nowhere, made of the same material that Amon had used when Kaneki fought him.

When it was drawn completely, Hirako slashed downward with the revealed katana to where Kaneki stood. Or at least, once stood. He had long jumped away and let his kakuja form slowly around him, the red cloak further hiding his face and the dense white RC cell armor forming around his chest, ending with his hands.

Hirako observed the ghoul intently. He was reported to have a half-kakuja in the form of a centipede. Perhaps this wasn't Gantai. Still, he would be eliminated, just like other ghouls he had faced and would face.

Just like Arima-Senpai had taught him.

"You investigators are very aggressive. Don't ever want to see if there's more to a ghoul." He heard the ghoul remark.

"And your kind eats our kind." He punctuated as he ran towards the red hooded ghoul. Hirako had never seen a ghoul with a white kagune or kakuja. He would have to ask the researchers.

A downward slice aiming to chop Kaneki in half was side stepped, leaving Kaneki's left shoulder perpendicular to his chest. The half ghoul bent at the waist before sending out a powerful sidekick aimed at Hirako's ribs.

Hirako spun with the kick's momentum, driving his sword on a wide arc towards Kaneki's chest. The calm demeanor he held never left him as Kaneki's armor held fast against the strike. There was a cut in the armor that was soon corrected by the kakuja.

One cut does nothing, so what would a stab do, thought Hirako.

Hirako ran after him while he recovered, blade poised to thrust quickly into his shoulder.

Kaneki considered his many options. He could dodge the attack easily, but he wanted more than that. He didn't so much want to defeat the investigator, instead he wanted him to listen. And the first step to doing that is disarming him.

When the man yelled with the attack he grabbed the sword in his armored hand before spinning and striking him hard on the chest. Hirako flew away, sword now in Kaneki's grasp. Hirako stared in horror. He didn't understand. Why would a ghoul take his quinque?

Kaneki took the blade in both hands and observed the kagune-borne steel. It was dense, like his own armor, and engraved near the hilt was its name.

"Yukimura 1/3, huh..." He observed. It left him confused more than anything. Here was a weapon, born from a ghoul, used by humans in order to kill other ghouls. It's almost as if the humans themselves had become the monsters they seek to destroy. It was ironic, even.

Hirako, not losing his determination in the slightest, recovered before dashing forward. Kaneki was far too absorbed in his observation of the weapon, resulting in Hirako grabbing it by the hilt and kicking at the half ghoul's legs.

With a screech as his hands grazed against the blade, Kaneki jumped back, ready once more for the fight. Hirako gave no space for a worthwhile recovery, however, as he had dashed forward intent on cutting down his adversary, even if he had to do it in small steps.

He attacked Kaneki in a flurry of slashes, all blocked with the back of the knight's hands or dodged outright, but still leaving him pushed back.

Eto had been different. He understood the way she fought, at range and with long limbs and bulky kakuja made to protect herself as well as maintain a certain speed. Eto was by no means slow, he thought, but this man challenged him. Where Kaneki would see an opening in Hirako's attacks, Hirako saw an opportunity for a feint.

Kaneki jumped away, to the roof of the building before jumping towards one of the pillars that held up the highway. From there, he launched himself at Hirako with armor sharpened in his hands akin to talons.

Hrako waited in place, blade placed at his left hip ready to meet the hooded ghoul's attack. His gray hair covered his eyes as he lowered his stance slightly the moment before Kaneki struck.

A screech was heard as Kaneki's makeshift talons connected with the Yukimura 1/3, and a struggle of power ensued. Kaneki used all his strength to push the blade down with one hand in order to sink the other into the man's shoulder, while Hirako pushed upwards and to the right against the attack, inserting a considerable amount of effort to keep the ghoul at bay. In his eyes, losing this battle would be fatal.

After a few seconds, Kaneki grew tired of the clash, allowing the blade to pass under him when he used it as base for a knee directly to Hirako's face. The investigator stumbled back as Kaneki landed on the ground on one knee. He launched forward with a clawed strike across the man's chest, drawing blood followed by a kick in the man's knee. An audibly sick snap was heard as the man cried out, before Kaneki threw a fist that connected with his nose.

Hirako, beaten and battered, fell back on the ground. His thoughts were plagued with many a memory.

Watching a ghoul eat his older sister.

Signing up for the CCG academy in order to find the ghoul who took away the light in his life.

Being placed under Kishou Arima.

The hard training that followed his placement with today's Reaper of the CCG.

Inheriting Yukimura 1/3 from his mentor.

His life had been about fighting ghouls, and he'd sworn to follow in Arima-senpai's footsteps and stay undefeated. The blood poured down from his nose as his teeth clenched in frustration. He had hoped to kill the ghoul that ate his sister, but had been unsuccessful in his search as the years passed. He had found happiness in the CCG, preventing losses like his own from happening, as well as becoming strong in his own right. If he had to die, he thought, he would want it to be by a ghoul known for being explicitly vicious, like the Owls or the beast of a ghoul called Shachi.

Not by some nameless kid in a red hood.

Kaneki watched on, his lust for battle calming as the white armor withdrew once more into his back and the red cloak faded away into the wind. Now only in his gray hood, he took a step before slamming his heel hard into the investigator's right wrist, making him release the weapon he clenched in his hand with a grunt of pain.

"You know, Hirako-san, I will not kill you. As hungry as I may get, my intent is no longer to kill humans." Kaneki said as he picked up the blade. Upon further inspection, he noticed it was serrated and had an abnormally long hilt.

Hirako watched in silence as the ghoul studied the blade. It made no sense, there were no records of any ghouls having interests in quinques.

"Then what are… your intentions." Hirako managed to cough out.

"We aren't too different, us ghouls. Humans and ghouls could work together, if only all the fighting would stop." Kaneki explained as he stood up with the blade in his hand.

"The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinions of the sheep."

"So you're the sheep, then?" Kaneki asked.

"Ultimately… yes."

"That is not a world I wish to live in, Hirako-san." Kaneki said before going to the public phone across the street and making a call.

_119 emergency services, what is your emergency?_

"There's an investigator here, he's been attacked by a ghoul."

_We have contacted the CCG and their medical services are on their way, may I get your na-_

Kaneki hung up and walked back to the investigator who was lying still, struggling to keep consciousness.

"Hirako-san, I've called the ambulance." Kaneki said, before gesturing to the blade in his hand. "I'll be taking this."

Hirako had no strength to object, deciding it a better idea to let the pain in his knee lull him to sleep.

**6 hours later…**

After a thorough bout of persuasion with the ghoul ship owners, Kaneki, Hinami, and Touka were left just outside the sunken house.

Hinami had asked many questions, all of which were quickly stifled by a disgruntled and tired Touka. After a long bout of drying themselves, Kaneki guiding them to their rooms after placing his newly acquired weapon in the room he shared with Eto. After they were dried and dressed(Hinami in clothes slightly too large because they belonged to Eto), he had them come upstairs to the library.

"Waaaaaah! There are so many books Niichan!" Hinami shouted in awe. She restrained herself for a moment, looking to him for permission.

"Be gentle, but go on." He gestured, watching as she gleefully took to the shelves while he and Touka sat down at the lone table in the middle of the room. Kaneki took a deep breath, feeling deeply relaxed as he watched Hinami take out a book and rest down on one of the futons to read.

Touka watched him watching her. He had changed, more than he had when he was first taken away by Aogiri. That much was obvious.

He seemed a lot more like he was long ago, before he became Shironeki, as Enji had taken to calling him after his return. No, where he was sad but returning to his former self then, he now seemed to embrace the new person he was. He didn't worry as much, not like he used to, but he didn't stare into space with a sad look in his eyes. He almost seemed more human.

"What in the hell happened to you?" She asked.

"Hm?" Kaneki said, now looking towards her.

"What happened to you, Kaneki?" She asked once more.

He explained everything, leaving out details like Eto's real identity and the way she conducted herself around him, as well as how he became as he is now. He had also left out why there were so many holes in the walls of the guest rooms.

He repressed the need to scratch the back of his head as he thought about how much he had revealed. All in all, he had only revealed that she saved him and Yoshimura-san by bringing them here.

"And what's with the new look? I didn't even have time to get used to the white, now it's white and purple?" She asked while grabbing at the strands of lilac scattered throughout his hair.

"Neechan, Niichan, look! This library has all of Takatsuki Sen's works!" Hanami yelled as she brought out the 9 books in front of him. He thanked Hinami for the interruption internally, before taking a closer look at the books. As far as he knew, she had only written 8 books as her writer persona.

"Don't you three look… nuclear."

They all looked up to where the voice came from.

At the entrance of the library stood Eto, or as Hinami had known her, Takatsuki Sen, drying off her long lilac colored hair. She stood completely barren of any clothes, revealing the curvature of her figure to her new guests. Touka had noticed many things immediately.

She noticed how ample her breasts were, slightly large but not falling below her rib cage, the way that all skin south of her naval was free of hair. Her thin waist leading into her womanly hips, making a statement about her matured body: She was a woman, and every bit of her naked body said so.

"T-T-T-T-T-Takatsuki-Sama!?" Hinami screeched out. Her face was beet red with embarrassment at the woman's liberal appearance. When she had first met her, she wore baggy clothes and for some strange reason, had green hair. Now, a shade of purple, but it didn't change the look in her eyes.

Touka was seething. Who the hell was this lady?

Kaneki had simply taken to sighing and letting a reluctantly accepting smile etch into his face.

**Go fuck yourself, I saw, her hair is green. It's a wig, I tell you, A WIG!**

**Fuck you.**

**Anyways, here's another chapter. It feels like I'm early, yeah? Now, let me be a complete tool and take the time to answer some of the reviews I got.**

**Dancingtuna: I tried. No seriously, I did, but it felt rushed. I was going to cut it off right before the fight with Hirako, and that little tussle wasn't really important enough to create a cliffhanger for. Honestly, I kind of needed a way for him to get a quinque, and why not the one he has in :re, Yukimura 1/3?**

**detrametal: It seems every 2 weeks is the only update interval that satisfies my need to end a damn chapter correctly, so I guess I'm sticking with what I have. It's not even that well written, and the fact that even one of you are willing to wait more than like 2 days(god knows I don't have that kind of patience) for a chapter honors me to no end. ily 3 3**

**nissangtrlover2569: He's still weaker than her, that much is for sure. I tried to keep him in the tank role. A good amount of destruction in his fingertips, but his true strength lies in how hard it is to maim him. Whether or not Eto has any syringes, I don't know. I don't know if I've said this in a chapter before, but I only know how this story began and how it will end. All of the things in between come to me in the form of ideas keeping me up the nights before school.**

**Amortal: Don't go digging so deep, just await your chapter every week like a good little reader ****. Glad you like at least some of it though.**


	5. 77 Days with a new Girlfriend

**Oh man. I'm late. Like, really late. Ah well, uh. I'm, um, busy? Semester started. Reviews for the bigger chapter, please? Thanks for reading and all that, bye!**

**77 Days With Eto**

Eto knew she had been increasingly provocative in the past two weeks. Perhaps it was because the two younger girls were in her house now. Perhaps it was because he wasn't such a fucking weakling anymore.

Maybe trying to get him flustered was what made it fun?

"Eto, why are you rubbing yourself against me?"

Eto rubbed her naked body against his half-dressed body as sultrily as she could. It was the early morning, and she was giving an earnest effort at trying to embarrass the other half-ghoul. She had made it a point to express her own nudist beliefs to the younger girls, before doing things that made her and Kaneki look like a pair.

"Because, I want to have _fun_." She told him daringly.

Kaneki simply rolled over and sighed, looking out the window into the dark sea. He understood what she was trying to do, and he had gotten used to it. She hadn't gone farther than displaying herself before him in these last weeks, so he had nothing to worry.

Touka's reaction to her increasingly daring behavior around him had been one of anger. She swore that when he said there was nothing going on between them he was lying, and poor young Hinami would blush and leave the room they occupied if she would start with her borderline pornographic behavior.

Hinami had been shocked at first that her favorite author, Sen Takatsuki, was simply a persona for another ghoul. After the initial shock, her admiration of the young woman intensified, now calling her 'Eto-sama'.

This, of course, only added to Eto's already bloated ego.

"God, you'd think a virgin would be eager to stop being a virgin." She said as she liedd on her back, tired of hacking at his defenses for the day.

He huffed, before lying on his back now that she wasn't trying to molest him.

"What?" She asked in respond to his puff of air.

"What gave you the impression that I'm a virgin?" he told her. Of course, he was, but why not return all the teasing in a slightly subtler form?

"Well, you lack masculinity, for one." She remarked, now turning to face him.

"And I can't think of anyone who would want to do it with Ken Kaneki. Kirishima-chan would be far more intolerant of the sleeping arrangements, Rize doesn't fuck her food and as far as I know you aren't a lolicon, so Hinami-chan is out of the question."

Kaneki played out his hand. "I knew other women, Eto."

Eto was now thoroughly interested. She only knew about Irimi from Anteiku, the Black Dog.

"Who would you know that would want to have sex with you? The black dog wasn't one to go for younger guys, from what I remember." She told him.

"You knew Irimi-san?" He asked, surprised. He hadn't heard from her, and had presumed her dead.

"Back when she led the Black Dobers, most ghouls knew about her. She wasn't the one, was she?"

"No, she wasn't."

"Bah, just tell me who is it!" Eto cried out impatiently.

"No one."

"But you just said-"

"I lied." Kaneki told her outright.

Thoroughly annoyed, Eto mounted his shirtless form, peering down on him angrily. Ever since her experiment he'd gotten so snappy. She could still kick his ass, sure, but the amount of effort that it would take something she had brought up down was considerably enough to dissuade her.

He and his stick-up-the-ass calm stature knew that, and it irritated her to no end. That's why it was her mission, before anything else, to embarrass him, no matter what the cost. She had only two cards in her sleeve left, and she would play one tomorrow.

"Eto, get off of me, I want to sleep." He told her.

"Well, Pillow-san, that's a conflict of interest if I've ever seen one."

She nuzzled into his neck and was asleep within 5 minutes, leaving an uncomfortable Kaneki to suffer an hour or two before exhaustion beat out his consciousness.

**Day 23**

Ken Kaneki awoke with the corpse of a young woman nestled into his neck and _very_ naked against his chest. He looked to the clock on the opposite side of the room. It was noon already, so that meant she would at least be coherent enough to get off of him. He began to nudge at her lightly snoring form.

"Eto, wake up."

The only response was a grumble and her latching on tighter to him. He shifted her more aggressively, intent on waking her up so that he could get a warm shower. God knows he needs it to work out the terrible pain between his shoulder blades from the awkward way he slept the night before.

"Eto, come on, wake up. I want to shower." He told her.

"Takfme wif you." She slurred into his neck. Losing a part of his patience, he stood up, planning to do just that. Perhaps the shock of the water would wake her up.

The draft hit her when he stood up straight, causing her to develop gooseflesh on her journey and shiver slightly. He walked into the bathing area, abandoning the pants he slept in, and turned on the water to a warm temperature.

Eto moaned, tightened her hold and turned her face deeper into his neck to keep the water away. Kaneki looked at her with an amused expression. As menacing as she could be, the owl loved her sleep.

He sat down on the stool he usually did, intent on performing all possible steps in his morning ritual despite her presence. The water felt good, easing the uncomfortable feeling in his back from the night's sleep as he took a rag and started to lather himself in soap.

Eto was his savior. She had saved him when he was about to lose himself, and sometimes the thoughts of what he was becoming during the fight defending Anteiku would haunt his waking hours. But she is the one who made the person he was now exist.

Not to say he would tolerate her throwing her weight around, either.

"Eto, why are you doing this?" he asked quietly. The pain had turned into a mild discomfort, now that the warm water was pouring down on him, but he was still put in a sour mood.

She moaned again, not wanting to wake up, but instead put her head on his shoulder facing away from the pouring water.

"Because you're cute and I'm horny." She told him.

Leave it to Eto to be brutally honest.

He gently pried her off of him, however much his body resisted such contact, now sitting face to face.

"Tell me, what am I to you?" He asked her. A confused expression appeared over the irritated one.

"Huh?"

"What am I to you?"

She contemplated her answer in silence, still sitting on his lap but now looking down at where they connected. It only distracted her farther.

She poked at the flesh extending from his pelvis, almost curious. If he took in a sharp breath or not, she didn't notice.

"I almost expected you to be huge, because, you know, irony." She told him.

"What would be ironic about me being… well endowed?" he asked roughly. He tried to close his legs but her hands slipped in between his thighs to fondle him, putting him in a compromising position.

"I did say you lack masculinity." She reminded him. He sighed, knowing exactly what to say. He grabbed her by the shoulders, dropping the rag on the floor and leaned forward slightly, his now mismatched eyes peering into her own.

"Eto, the One-Eyed King of Aogiri, will you be my girlfriend!?" he yelled out. She stared back into his eyes with surprise.

Just as he'd expected, she simply looked down and stayed quiet for the rest of their shower time. After they got out, before she could leave the room naked as she did for the past few weeks, he stopped her.

"Until you can answer me, please stop being so flirtatious, and wear at least some wrappings around Touka and Hinami-chan."

She turned around to look at him in the eye, now thoroughly irritated with him. What did he expect her to say with such a declaration? Did he even mean it?

Why did she care?

"It's my own fucking house, I can dress however the fuck I want." She told him, before walking out stark naked once more. He sighed.

'Now she's angry.'

She had disappeared, it seems, because after getting dressed he went up to where the 4 of them usually congregated: the library. Hinami had taken to reading anything and everything Eto would recommend. She had even begun to dress more liberally, one day opting to wear shorts and a top that showed her midriff.

Kaneki and Touka were quick to cut that sort of behavior at the stem, to Eto's amusement.

"Good afternoon Hinami-chan." Kaneki said happily. He walked over to where she sat on the table. In her hands was not another book recommended by Eto, _The Metamorphosis_.

"Hi, Niichan! This book is really sad…" She told him. He knew of the book, though he hadn't read it himself. It was rather sad, but he did like it.

"I know it is well written, though." He remarked as he sat down on the table across from her. He peered over to Touka who sat down on a beanbag chair with her headphones on. She had made it a conscious effort to pointedly ignore him when he was in the same room as Eto. It seemed that where Hinami was understanding and embraced Eto's rather revealing nature, Touka had completely rejected the notion of the nudist owning the house she currently occupied.

This behavior was only encouraged when he would enter with Eto at his side or when he would leave when she did. Touka didn't understand why it bothered her so much. She had seen many ghouls with odd quirks in order to deal with the world they lived in. Her prime example was Shuu-teme.

He was as crazy as one of the good guys could be, but this Eto person didn't sit right with her. Kaneki wouldn't tell her much, but it couldn't be a coincidence that she was a half ghoul AND Kaneki's favorite author AND happened to be there when Anteiku was being attacked. It all seemed to eerily… planned, on her part at least, but Kaneki was none the wiser in her eyes. Despite his drastic changes from when she had first met the ex-college student, it seemed that some things would forever remain intact, like his tendency to trust to easily.

"Touka-chan, good afternoon." Kaneki greeted as he sat next to her. He knew she could hear him, as she never put her music on too loud. Whether this was out of caution or simple preference, he didn't know, but what mattered is that she could hear him.

And then proceeded to ignore him.

"Mah, come on Touka. What did I do?" He asked. She simply acted as if he wasn't there once again.

"I know I didn't do anything because you haven't spoken to me in a few days, I haven't had room to do anything." He remarked, now leaning against the wall. He turned to her. He took his index finger and poked her in the side, making her jump while he punctuated.

"Tou~ka."

"At least tell me what I did wro-" he was cut off when her fist shot out to strike him in the face which he easily dodged. He poked her side again, making her furious before he dodged another strike. When she dropped her headphones and her phone on the futon in an attempt to mangle his rapidly retreating form, Hinami had noticed her behavior.

"Neechan, what are you doing?" She asked, slightly annoyed at Touka's aggressive tendencies. Kaneki however, simply held a hand out to keep her from interfering.

"Touka, why are you so angry?" He asked with a smile. He would get her out of the fortnight long temper tantrum. She had watched when he and Eto had a small spar a few days ago, so she knew exactly what his intentions were when he went upstairs to the fourth floor. She followed closely behind him, intent on giving him a piece of her mind.

When they reached the large battered room, Touka was still giving him a sour look.

The sour look on her face wasn't missing the angry feeling in her heart. She couldn't explain it and it made her all the angrier. It was the awful feeling she got when he would appear by Eto's side or have animated conversations with her, or when he would wait on the other half ghoul like he would wait on her back at Anteiku. And things were different, now, she could understand that, but it didn't feel right. The way the older woman was so comfortable with HER Kaneki felt innately wrong, just like referring to Kaneki as hers.

But she couldn't help it, and by Lucifer she would kick his ass for being so inconsiderate.

"Now, will you tell me what I did wrong already?" he asked, now standing in the center of the room when she walked in. She ran forward with a scowl on her face.

"Shut up!"

He knew she was angry, but when a wing flared out from behind her shoulders, he knew he couldn't exactly sleep on her abilities. He almost reciprocated her animosity, a small amount of his own anger at her that he didn't know was there flaring. It was odd, he hadn't felt that in a long time, and he felt inexplicably impatient today as well. Then she got closer and he was forced to pay attention. An angry Touka could be rather scary, from what he remembered.

She practically flew through the air with her knees outstretched ready to decapitate him. Kaneki rolled to the side, quick to evade such things. She wasn't very strong, but her velocity made up for the fact and more, making him use his kagune to push himself away from the position he was in when she attacked again.

And so began the game of cat and mouse. Touka would get tired for about 5 seconds, before rushing at him again with what seemed like the intent to kill, but to their single spectator, was only a game. After an hour of Kaneki simply dodging every attack, but never attacking himself.

"Hit me!" She panted, before running at him again. He frowned, it was hard to hit something that held no threat to him, he found. She threw a punch to his face that he ducked before grabbing his shoulders and trying to knee his chest. Kaneki simply relaxed his body and threw his head back to dodge the oncoming knee before picking her up by the leg and tossing her over him.

The maneuver was entirely unexpected, as Touka was thrown against the far wall with Kaneki's superior strength. Noticing she was done, Kaneki walked towards her slowly before sitting down at the edge of the hole his body made a few weeks ago. He hadn't realized how quickly time had passed during his little trifles with the younger ghoul, and the day had quickly turned into night. He hadn't seen Eto since their shower this morning, and he took that as a blessing.

"Touka, will you tell me what has you so angry now?" He asked quietly. She was still panting and resting against the wall next to him, before looking at him. It was admirable, he thought, how the fierce look never left her eyes.

"You sleep with her and she walks around naked, how else am I supposed to feel." She told him quietly.

Kaneki sighed. "Despite how eccentric she is, she also saved my life and gave you a home when you couldn't return to yours."

"It's not that I'm ungrateful it's just… I don't think that she should get a slut pass because she saved our butts. Who is she anyway? Things seem to fall into place a little TOO perfectly around her." She argued. The panting had stopped, but she was still thoroughly tired.

"What do you mean?"

"Why was your favorite author, who happened to be a ghoul, at Anteiku to save you?" she challenged. It wasn't a coincidence, she knew that much.

"Couldn't it be coincidence?"

Who Eto was outside of the house was her secret to tell, and Kaneki wouldn't tell anyone anything about her ambitions or her reasoning. When asked how powerful she was, Kaneki responded that she was stronger than he is.

The thought terrified Touka far more than she would be willing to admit.

"Why are you covering for her? You left all these holes in the story of how you got away. I saw you… You were losing yourself, and now you're completely fine?"

"There are some things better left unsaid." He tried to brush her off.

"Bullshit!" She yelled. The feeling in his upper back was back again, only adding to his slight irritation with her immaturity.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't tell you everything about someone else! They aren't my secrets to tell." He snapped back.

"Why do you have to hide it from me? I bet you tell her everything!"

"Whatever." Kaneki told her offhandedly. He wouldn't deal with it; she can go back to ignoring him. Touka only stood up in response and walked out. He sighed. They hadn't solved anything.

Then, he was pulled by the leg out of the hole in the wall and fell into the ocean with a huge splash. He heard a smaller splash follow behind his own as he sunk into the water, watching for the offender. He already guessed it was Eto, and his guess was confirmed as correct when she swum to his side under the water before they both rose to get a breath of fresh air.

"Eto, what was that fo-"

Eto latched her lips onto his, moaning into it and garnering a small reaction from Kaneki himself, one he couldn't control. He grabbed her tightly by the waist, almost to the point of breaking bones, before he threw her away and bolted in a swift swim towards the entrance to the house.

He felt his mind slip as he ran to his room, anxious to get under some warm water once more to try and clear his head, but Eto was hot on his heels, intent on capturing her prey.

When he entered the bathroom, he tried to close the door, but she simply destroyed it with one kick, breaking it in half and sending splinters into the bathroom while Kaneki took his clothes off. She made sure to lock their bedroom door, seeing as the house was still occupied by others. He incoherently turned on the shower, grasping away at his own body as if trying to scratch an internal itch. It was unexplainable, not as if he was in the state of mind to assess what was happening to him, but his torso felt like it would explode and cover the bathroom with his entrails, before Eto came forward grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Yes!" She cried out.

But he was in no state of mind to listen to her, grabbing her hands and prying them off before he grabbed her waist once more. He rushed towards the wall, slamming her against it and making her hiss in pain before his lips crashed onto hers. A piece of himself escaping from the intense white feeling in his body spoke in his mind.

'What am I doing?!'

The thought came and left unanswered, as her lips parted to set lose her hot breath in his mouth. An adventure started where his tongue was the explorer of the region he had dubbed Eto's mouth, as he forced his own body onto her at every crevice he could. The interaction was feral, one not entirely human, Eto noticed, but she was glad he was into it.

Kaneki, still unable to think normally, released his kagune, the 4 tentacles of white moving sporadically in all directions while he kissed her. Eto reached down and grabbed at him, intent on taking advantage of the situation at hand. She had to question his sudden ferocity, though.

"What's up with you?" She tried to ask during a small break of their lip lock.

He simply grunted and began to thrust into her waiting hand, only seeing her. She was without error, unblemished in his eyes as he lifted her legs to wrap around his own. Without reservation he pushed his hardness into her awaiting wetness, opting to look her in the face instead of savor the experience of losing his virginity.

Her eyes were devious, hooded with an intense lust he matched. His own kakugan was flaring and wide, as the extra limbs sprouted from his back lodged them into the wall around him. The powerful pressure had centralized to his upper back, between his shoulder blades as he thrust forward with no sign of stopping.

Eto's own moans began to leak out as he grunted with effort. She began to pant when he picked up his pace, leaving and entering her with reckless abandon. Never one to be dominated easily, she relaxed, allowing her own set of red tentacles to go with his white ones sprouted from her lower back, pushing against the wall as he tried to resist her attempt at repositioning.

Now the thrust came even harder, as if accented by anger.

"I thought" an angled thrust took her breath away, making her wrap her legs around his torso. "This is what" he unwrapped her legs, taking her knees in his hand lifting them onto his shoulders when he began to thrust upwards at a different angle. "you wanted!"

"Fuck!" She yelled out, before finally removing herself from her trapped position. He stumbled until she forced him to the floor on his back, riding him just as hard as he was drilling her. He met every drop with one squinted human eye and a wide soul-staring kakugan, staring at her writhing form.

Kaneki grabbed both of her breasts and began to squeeze harshly and tweak the nipples in experiment, making her moan louder. In response she dropped down to start kissing away at his neck while still lowering herself angrily on him.

Then, without warning, she bit him. The wound spat out blood onto the bathroom floor that the warm water quickly washed away, before it began to close slowly and be replaced with perfect skin. He yelled with exertion as he flipped her over.

Now on her back, Eto wrapped her legs around his waist once more, pulling herself even closer to him. Kaneki went on grunting, unable to form words in order to explain the enhanced feeling until the pressure in his upper back began to release before it moved down to his pelvic region. In order to return the favor, he bit down on her open neck, watching as it dropped even more blood than her own bite did before it healed significantly slower than his own.

"Fuck! Fuck me!" She yelled out. He thrust harder, ignoring the sounds of bones breaking under him as well as her hisses, before he stopped. Buried deep inside her, the pressure was relieved from his body until he felt himself go weak.

He left her precious place and sat back. The water poured down on the both of them while he stared at his handy work. The whiteness seeped out from her opened folds, giving him an intense satisfaction, one that he noted he hadn't felt in a long time.

He also noted that his mind had become clear.

The guilt was crushing.

"Eto, I-I-"

Her own slightly dazed smile quickly turned into a scowl. "If you apologize I will kill you." She told him.

She would be damned if he regretted THAT. It was amazing, and not expected from a virgin. Her guess was awkwardly meeting at the waist while he buried his blushing face in her neck. Not the feral, utterly _manly _way he ravished her.

"But I-"

Ah, fuck that.

"I don't regret it, why should you?" she told him. The previously still pair of tentacles coming from her lower back sprang into action, lifting her off the ground gently and pacing toward the towel rack on the opposite end of the bathroom. Her legs hanged lifelessly as she went about the notions with her bodily extensions.

Kaneki sat in the same place, looking at his hands in disgust. The uncomfortable feeling between his shoulder blades was long gone, now, replaced with a feeling much like when he had his kagune out. But the white tentacles had long been retracted, what would that feeling be?

"You already look like a bitch with that thing on your back." He heard Eto remark as he dried himself.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you didn't see it in the heat of the moment. And good lord was it hot." She told him. He stood up and stalked over to the mirror, refusing to meet her eyes. What he saw gave him many feelings.

He felt comfortable, for one, despite the debilitating guilt from the act he had participated in a few minutes earlier. Then, he felt compassion. Whether it was to him or to ghouls or to humanity, or all of them as he sometimes felt, was unimportant. Shame followed when he realized that thoroughly abusing Eto is what had caused this change, and then very small and well hidden satisfaction that it was because of the exact same thing.

"When you decided that you wanted to fuck me so hard you broke my pelvis into pieces, those things sprang out like a fucking eagle." She said as her thick tentacles walked her out into the room. He rushed to dry himself and agonize over the fact that he broke her bones. Forget never being able to experience sex for the first time with someone he loved, she wouldn't experience it the same way ever again!

"Eto I didn't know what-"

"Oh you knew. Now get in bed, if I keep moving I won't heal."

"Eto, what is an eagle?" He asked as he threw on a pair of sleeping pants.

"American bird, but now that I think about it, you look more like a dove." She said as her tentacles lied her down slowly onto the mattress face down. They retracted quickly and she used her arms to turn herself over, not wincing at the sharp pain in her nether regions.

Kaneki, ever the reader, did not miss the irony. Here he was, with wings white like his armor, or more accurately, like a _dove's_ while being a half ghoul. He looked over to the sword he brought in those weeks ago, Yukimura 1/3, and considered his place in the world. He seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once, he noticed.

He conceded to not worry about it and instead began to think of the present. He had a few months before he would take action, anyways. Now, his biggest priority is finding a way to wade through the confusing feelings in his own heart.

He couldn't deny that Eto was beautiful, but he had never looked at her as more than a host, despite her frighteningly open disposition about sexuality and the clothes she wore(or lack thereof, he thought). She had always been Eto-san who saved him, Eto-san who led Aogiri, Eto who had ordered for his torture so long ago, Eto who had convinced him he could be strong, Eto who had at first been the warden but now was just another woman, ghoul and human, to enter his life.

He thought Touka was pretty, and the way her legs went on for miles past the shorts she usually wore would make the old version of him blush endlessly when he lied in his bed looking at the ceiling. But he still felt childish, then, and this feeling was entirely different. It wasn't so much as grown up as it was definitive. He defended her against those that he felt didn't understand her ways, despite her vehement need not to be defended, and would not do wrong by her.

The feeling he had now was one of determination to have Eto by his side. He was sure it wasn't love, just an adamant need to be next to her. This confused him.

Isn't that what love was all about?

He stepped around Eto's prone form and took his side of the bed at the window. He laid down facing outwards back into the moon, considering the things that had led him up to this point. The pain in his upper back wasn't because of Eto sleeping on him for the night, it was because of the wings that would sprout when he and Eto would… Consummate their relationship.

The realization made his heart jump. He had expected her to have problems with commitment by the way she insisted they have relations the delved far past friendly, so he challenged her. And she took to it like a fish to water.

'What have I gotten myself into?'

"You know, I didn't want to deal with all that sappy bullshit you tried to pull earlier today. But then I saw how you didn't let yourself get scraped to the bottom of Kirishima's boot, and that made me reconsider. You want to know how to make it up to me?" She asked. He sat up and looked down at her with an intense pained expression on his face.

"Anything!"

She grabbed at his jaw with her hand, bringing him down to her face so that he could meet her mismatched eyes. It was mesmerizing, he decided, how her kakugan was on the opposite side of his.

"Do it again."

Then she let go, and within minutes she was snoring, leaving a guilty and scared Kaneki to think about the day.

Guilty because of what transpired, and scared because he would have to explain to Touka that Eto's behavior was now semi-appropriate.

God knows what he would have to tell Hinami-chan.

**Day 24**

Eto had told him upon waking that Kanou was available to meet that day, and that she would make sure he would go in order to have himself checked out. He insisted that he was fine, but her need for him to go lied more in research than worry for his wellbeing.

"Besides, there's absolutely nothing to be fixed in terms of your mental state, Ken-kun." She had told him.

Since then, she had also taken to calling him by his first name, embarrassing him and bringing back his old nature. His mood swings were now at constant extremes between modestly bashful and almost boastfully confident. He likened it to the way Eto was rather sadistic as the Owl and rather playful as herself, clumsy and childish as Takatsuki Sen, or childish but not clumsy when she was another Aogiri Tree operative.

Now, he sat in a very bright room after narrowly avoiding Touka and Hinami on his way out and being ferried by Eto to the 24th ward. Kanou, had not changed, and was all business despite his previous interactions with Kaneki. Shachi, ever the bodyguard, stood near one of the many consoles and peered at Eto and Kaneki closely.

Kaneki may or may not have been slightly tense at the hulking man's presence, but he would do what needed to be done to placate Eto, especially after his rather barbaric performance the evening before.

"Now, I need a sample of your blood. You understand that I can't exactly inject you in your arm, correct?" Kanou asked as he prepared a syringe with expert efficiency. It was almost easy to forget that he was a human-ghoul witch doctor bent on changing the world when he spoke to him in a comforting manner. The smile everyone in the room knew was completely artificial took over his face.

"The eye, right?" Kaneki asked as he took hold of his eye lids with two index fingers, prepared for the slight pain that would ensue. As the needle approached slowly, his vision began to blur slightly.

"Eight… Eight-hundred thirty-two…"

paIN

Chaffing

Centipede?

No… No!

Rize-san…

When he came to, he was lying on the floor with Eto's bandaged foot on his chest while holding Shachi back with one arm effortlessly. She pressed down on his chest with her heel, making it ache slightly.

"What happened?" He asked quietly. The needle had been approaching and in almost an instant things went black.

"You tried to strangle our only doctor." He heard Eto's disembodied childish voice speak. Did he? He didn't remember. The darkness came and left so fast. Kanou stood a ways away with a full syringe of blood, dusting off his lab coat. His ridiculously false serene small was replaced by a dark scowl. It was more in tune with what Kaneki thought of the madman.

He walked over to one of the consoles as Kaneki sat down once more and thought about what had happened. He could still hear the numbers in his head, a steady hum of counting upwards and downwards from 1000 by 7. It unnerved him, making him crack his knuckles slowly and deliberately in order to exit the cacophony of his head.

"You said that his behavior changed after he received the injection, Eto?" Kanou asked as he studied the mass of small little blobs labeled RC.

"He was a stuck up Gantai-san before it, afterwards he relaxed a lot. Yesterday, though, he became kind of crazy with me. I had fun though." She made sure to punctuate the statement with a childish giggle that made him work hard to suppress a blush. The scowl on Kanou's face only deepened, muttering something he could only assume was 'young people' as he stepped away from the console and over to a table with a microscope on it. The doctor studied a small sample of Kaneki's blood intently. His eyes widened.

"Kaneki, step through this gate." He told him, gesturing to a gate not unlike an RC scanner found in CCG headquarters. Kaneki walked through it slowly, as an image appeared in the console Kanou had turned back to. He stared at it with wide eyes before he took notes in a notebook he seemed to keep handy for his probably inhumane experiments.

"Fascinating." He remarked.

"What is?" Kaneki voiced all of their thoughts.

"Ghouls are not naturally born with an immune system like humans. Because they produce RC cells, their kakuhous act like immune systems themselves. When I gave you a copy of Rize's kagune, you now had two forms of defense against outside invasions, one far less in number, but far more potent per cell: RC cells. I assume it was difficult to use your kagune after the operation?"

"Yes, it was."

"That was most likely because of your body fighting the new addition, but RC cells are far too strong to lose out to a human, so you slowly adapted, and the white blood cells stopped attacking. Then, you received the E-Base 1 injection." He explained animatedly. He was smiling, and his enthused attitude disgusted Kaneki to no end, but he would have to deal.

"And?"

"The sheer amount of RC cells in your body skyrocketed, rendering your human immune system completely obsolete. However, your RC cells didn't eliminate them, they _fused_."

"What would that even mean?"

"The most common white blood cell's life span lies from 6 hours to a few days. RC cells live forever in your body, never leaving or dying because when you eat it is strengthened. It seems the white RC cells have converted your largest kakuhou that now holds and develops white RC cells. These cells are fusing slowly but surely with the normal RC cells given to you by the injection. You have already formed another kakuhou, a ukaku-type, from these white RC cells. Absolutely fascinating." He explained. His excitement was palpable and rejected by all others in the room.

'Just when I thought I had it all in my hand.' Thought Kaneki. His plans would have to wait until he was finished 'growing' it seemed.

"What does that have to do with the mood swings, Kanou-san?" Eto asked. As much as she liked dominant white Senshineki, she would like to have his mood swings explained as well.

"Well, when ghouls cannibalize, their RC cells travel their body in a flurry of increased strength and adrenaline, it also travels through their brains, sending signals to do things that the person wouldn't do naturally. It is all quite interesting, and behavioral patterns are why I began to study ghouls. As a matter of fact-"

"We're not here to hear your life story, Kanou. Eto, we're leaving." He told her.

"Since it will take some time for all the normal RC cells to be converted, you'll probably develop a few more kakuhous. Tell me, when the first one sprouted in the form of wings, did you feel anything?"

Kaneki thought about the day before, making sure to skip over the details and focus on his own thoughts and feelings. "I was irritable and there was a pressure in my back building until the wings sprouted." He responded.

"It would be imperative to have someone record your behavior over the next month or so while they grow." He said with a smile on his face. This one wasn't so eerily false, Kaneki observed. It was repulsive how much the man enjoyed what he did, practically ruining lives. He thought of the twins, himself, Rize-san, all of the people this man took advantage of.

"You're not to make any more half ghouls, Kanou." He told him in a steely tone. He wouldn't have more lives being ruined, not after his own, and especially not at the hands of this man. Shachi watched on, agreeing internally but waiting for Kaneki to do something. His only job was to protect this man, despite his own disgust at the thought of intermixing with the humans. His reasons weren't so ethical as the young half-ghoul's, but he was just a bodyguard, he wasn't hired to think.

Eto looked up to Kaneki silently, no sound or expression forming under her bandages. She wanted to see how this played out as well.

"I cannot exactly do that."

"And why is that?" He asked more forcefully. He found his already swaying mood begin to fall heavily into anger and resentment.

'I'll be damned if someone goes through what I did.'

Kanou was never one to be deterred, however. In fact, he had foreseen how his most successful experiment's emotions would utterly defy any plans he and Aogiri had for the world. It would be difficult, yes, but the things he saw in Germany weren't meant to be repeated anywhere else. It was wrong, even to someone as perverse as him, so he would do whatever it takes here to keep such an incident from happening as well as in the name of science.

"Kaneki-san, are you defying the orders of the king?" The aged doctor replied.

Kaneki had tried to keep himself from looking towards Eto. He really did.

Unfortunately, she had decided to hurry out, catching on to his current mood and deciding it was better to put it to good use instead of blowing up at Kanou and Shachi which would most likely result in a destroyed lab.

A very, very expensive lab with very, very expensive lab equipment.

"Gantai-kun, there is someone you have to meet!" She said in a disembodied girlish voice, dragging him out of the door and through the halls until they were back in the vast halls of 24. It still awed him how terribly eerie the whole ward seemed, if he could count it as one. They walked (or she dragged) for about a minute before they were at a clearing with far fewer pillars than the rest of the ward lit up by overhead lights.

Three figures became visible when he was thrown into the clearing and abandoned by Eto. There were crates abound as well as what smelled like packaged meat surrounded about. Two of them were sitting amongst the crates while a single particularly tall person stood in the center of the clearing. What did Eto intend for him now?

As he walked closer he was able to discern certain things about the lone figure that stood in the middle. It wasn't the bright lights that made his hair seem white, he concluded, because it was actually white. The collar of the long snow colored coat he wore covered the bottom half of his face but once he got closer it was plain to see that he had a pure red mask over the bottom half of his face. His hands were covered by his long sleeves but his dull expression was what caught most of Kaneki's attention.

He walked forward, unwavering and resolute in his pace before he stood in front of the young half ghoul. The red eyes pierced Kaneki's own in a challenge of sorts. Unspoken but clear, Kaneki nodded.

"I've been waiting for a rematch, Gantai-"

The man in white held an arm out to stop the now sullen black haired youth sitting amongst the crates behind them. Kaneki recognized his hair as that of Touka's brother, Ayato. If the circumstances were different he would almost say it was nice to see him. It had been a long time.

And about 103 bone fractures as well.

They were an odd bunch, he surmised. A man with a pony tail and a red cloak stood in the distance, noticeable only to those who he allowed to, stood like a tree. It was unnerving, how still the ones other than Ayato and the blonde sitting far from him looking were. The tall white haired man took a step back before his hands left the comfort of his sleeves. Kaneki looked up slightly to meet his eyes, before he found himself looking at the ceiling.

"I am Tatara. Draw your sword and attempt to cut me." The man spoke evenly and solemnly. As if he was entirely sure that he was not in danger.

Kaneki did not take the challenge lightly.

He ran forward and launched a kick at the taller ghoul's ankle that was dodged with a simple step back. Grounding the extended foot, he brandished Yukimura 1/3 from his back and slashed in a diagonal arc downwards.

He hid his shock when Tatara simply caught the blade in his fingertips. He moved deliberately but quickly all at the same time, and Kaneki found himself on his back once more, staring up into the vast blackness that made the ceiling of 24. He steeled himself, intent on making sure that this Tatara person would know that he was not to be trifled with.

White began to cover his body starting from his lower back and around his rib cage. A stinging pain was felt in his lower back where his kakuhou resided and he was launched onto his stomach. During his release, Tatara had attacked him from behind.

The man was impossibly fast, Kaneki learned.

"I said your sword, not your kagune."

The same even tone drone out the clarification. Kaneki suppressed a grimace at the pain in his lower back. He had actually hit it, unlike the time Eto had poked it. This time, it wasn't a stinging feeling, but a burn.

Nonetheless, he stood up and grabbed the serrated blade's hilt with both hands and started pacing around his seemingly emotionless enemy, intent on finding a weak spot. As he approached his back, he took his opportunity, intent on first dodging whatever interception the man had for his approach and at least nick him in the process.

Tatara simply threw a back kick out that had him bent over slightly but was easily dodged. A rush of wind alerted him of Kaneki's prepared swing. Remembering where the half ghoul's hands were placed last he saw him, he shifted his weight onto his hands, and then used the heel of his other foot to parry Kaneki's attack.

Kaneki had expected 2 layers of resistance from the man's back, however, and didn't fully commit to the attack. With his sword hand being launched up ward and away from him by the heel, he saw an opening in the man's chest. A swift forward kick erupted towards the weak spot, but fell short once Tatara had rolled away.

As the man stood up, his solemn expression remaining, Kaneki sneered. He was under the impression that this was a rite of passage of some sort. After all, some no-name couldn't just up and be placed with the direct subordinates by word of Eto. As far as he knew, no one knew of Eto's true identity, so it was only natural that at least someone already there would test him.

And he wasn't weak anymore. Nor was he crazy. He just needed to hit the tall fucker, right?

Kaneki rushed forward, placing careful slash after slash against the calmly dodging Tatara, intent on pressuring him until he saw an opening. After about half a minute, none came and he stopped, opting to cut high towards the man's neck.

Tatara bent backward before launching back up with a fist cocked back. Kaneki hadn't watched the fist move, but he sure as hell felt the impact. Stunned, he took a step back.

Tatara stood straight up, before rolling up his sleeves slightly and widening his stance.

"Defend."

Then, he disappeared from sight. A hammer fist struck Kaneki's shoulder aggressively, naking him bucked before a straight punch hit the side of his face. He was about to fall on the ground before he was grabbed by the collar and throw over Tatara's shoulder and onto the grown head first.

"You may heal quickly, but that is no reason to take damage needlessly." Tatara spoke, still unaffected by their small spat.

Kaneki groaned as he rose slowly, assessing the fight as well as he could. In terms of technique, Tatara was stronger than he was. He hadn't tested strength, but he knew that he wasn't the strongest ghoul there was. His strength lies in being durable. He wasn't an expert with a sword either. Did Tatara know how to use a sword? It was unlikely, as far as he knew most ghouls preferred their kagune over weaponry.

Kaneki attempted to abandon any hesitant feelings that could slow him down. He was able to challenge Eto directly, now, what was stopping him from beating one of her subordinates, even if it was without his kagune or kakuja. From his crouched position, he pounced. His blade was facing forward in a stabbing position, while the hilt was held at his side. The flight towards Tatara was quick, but he managed to change the position of the blade, intent on cutting the older ghoul in half.

Tatara observed quietly before grabbing the wrist of his sword hand and pushing it away. His eyes almost widened when Kaneki swung around using his bound wrist as a focal point and wrapped his legs around his adversary. The sword was wrenched out of Tatara's grip before it came back downwards to impale both of the fighters.

Blood began to stain Tatara's white coat, making him suck his teeth in annoyance. He struggled against Kaneki's wrist in an attempt to pull the sword out. Grinding his teeth together slightly he ripped it out.

"Barbaric."

Reaching over with a bloody hand behind his back, he grabbed Kaneki by the collar once more and held him out in front of him, off the ground.

Kaneki took the time to observe him carefully. His face was unblemished and his eyes were the red of his metal mask. It was to be assumed he would be handsome without it, being so tall and having thin eyes that pierced whatever they were looking at intently. His grip was tight and Kaneki was sure that he wouldn't be able to get out unless he wanted to.

"Why do you use a sword?" Tatara asked.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, he had been curious when he saw it. A ghoul carrying an anti-ghoul weapon? It was unheard of; especially considering that a bout between ghouls was a fight between kagune, bringing in other weaponry was just straight out disrespectful.

Kaneki considered his answer. He was unsure what exactly this Tatara person knew, so saying something like 'It's the first step in showing that humans and ghouls are not too far apart' wouldn't exactly be accepted.

"To disrespect investigators." He answered. It was a lie, an ugly and complete one at that, and he couldn't wait to see who his friends in this cause were. As far as he knew, all of them could be like-minded to his and Eto's goals. It would just take time. With time came authority, and if Eto was right he would have as much authority as Tatara seemed to have once he was well acclimated into Aogiri. After all, loyalty was usually brought alongside authority. The change will be magnificent, first in the organization Aogiri Tree and then in the world, Kaneki thought.

"Your hubris will be your downfall. Unless you plan on doing something other than maiming yourself and your opponent at the same time, abandon the blade." Tatara said before he set the younger half ghoul down. Kaneki looked up slightly, trying to find some kind of emotion in the man's eyes. There was none.

"Eto says you will stand beside me in serving the king. I see the potential, but none of the intellect. Your bastardized eye is also disconcerting to the rest of Aogiri." He spoke as he walked away, completely unaffected by the wound in his stomach. Kaneki's had healed quickly.

"It is to my understanding that you will be returning to Tokyo soon." Tatara spoke louder as he walked back towards the other two Aogiri members in the clearing.

"Who said that?" Kaneki asked.

"I did."

Eto had dropped down from Kami knows where and landed sitting down on his shoulders, intent on riding him(a thought that made him fight down a blush) until they got him. She seemed determined to play with his hair as he spoke to Tatara, much to his chagrin.

"Indeed, she did. Afterwards, you are to report to a bar in the 16th ward. Eto will show you there."

Kaneki walked off, still touting Eto on his shoulders. She playfully fingered at the different colored strands of hair. It made some sense, she supposed. DNA could be found in RC cells after all, and taking in a huge amount of them in an instant would make someone's hair grow in a different pigmentation.

She healed nicely after his little 'outburst' as she called it. It was invigorating, to see a side of him so feral, but also worrying. He could be unpredictable.

Unpredictability was not an attractive trait in Aogiri.

**20****th**** Ward**

A tall man walked through the now almost vacant streets of the 20th ward quietly with a book in hand. It had been almost a month since the CCG's latest attack, and because of that, civilians have been making sure to steer clear of any potential returning ghouls. The CCG knew ghouls weren't that idiotic, however.

A smart ghoul knew how to disappear, and knew how to disappear well. They wouldn't return to their old home, especially when there weren't any humans to blend in with. It was practically asking to get caught, the man thought.

He turned back a page in his book because in his ramblings he hadn't actually read it. It was easy to tell that this book was supposed to be a parallel to the life of a ghoul. It was unnerving how the emotion poured into this almost humanized them. The man held back a chuckle.

Either he had a ghoul on his hands or Takatsuki Sen was an amazing writer.

He walked on for what seemed like hours until he reached a hospital. The trip to his desired room was a short one, and he found himself bedside to one of his past partners: Take Hirako.

"Take-san, how are you?"

The gray haired man looked tired and slightly pained. His left knee was in a cast and his chest was bandaged as well as his face. The man had taken a beating indeed, but had lived. That was why the taller man was here.

"Senpai…" Hirako struggled to speak, the drugs preventing him from feeling pain entirely too effective. The taller man sighed. He would have to work with this.

"Take-san, do not strain yourself. You said a ghoul did this to you?"

"Yes…"

"Do you know who it was?" he probed. The man named Take Hirako took a deep breath, readying himself. He cleared his mind as best as he could before he explained.

"Gantai, now Centipede. 13th ward. His kakuja is completely formed. No more centipede tails. Now full white armor. An anomaly. Senpai, he…"

"Take your time, Take-san." The man reassured.

"White armor, all over. I couldn't penetrate with Yukimura 1/3. He took it. He… He let me live. Arima-senpai, he took Yukimura 1/3… I'm sorry."

The white haired man gripped his subordinate's forearm reassuringly.

"Don't worry. Did he say why he took it?"

Take visibly shook at the question, worrying the man named Arima more.

"He said he didn't want to live in a world like this. It's why he let me live…"

10 minutes later found a heavily sleeping Hirako and Kishou Arima walking out of the hospital. Book in hand, he considered the information he got from his friend and ex-partner. Arima would be watching out for any use of the serrated sword he carried since youth, and he would have Centipede renamed to White Knight. Inaccuracies wouldn't do in the CCG.

He turned past the last page of the book, content with the ending and finding himself in a small excerpt from the next book written by Takatsuki Sen. He smiled lightly.

"A good writer indeed."


End file.
